Unlike “meta-narrative,” salience marker is my own terminology. It’s when we use language to tell us to pay attention and see a person, place, thing, idea, situation, etc. in a certain emotionally charged way. Whenever something sounds dramatic – or reassuring – there’s very likely at least one salience marker in the message giving us that emotional cue.
The theory behind salience markers is based in two lines of research. In the visual arts and music, there are signals that grab our attention and usually evoke emotion, too – and when we use their equivalents in language, these signals can influence how we think about things. They’re used all the time in politics and social movements – and for that matter, in advertising, although that’s not my focus here. We don’t always follow them automatically, though – sometimes when we notice them, we can feel manipulated. So that’s the trick – we want people to pay attention to us and take us seriously, but we run the risk of skepticism unless we make a point to be authentic, transparent, and ethical.
Here are three broad families of salience markers that I’ve identified:
Structural – those that divide a situation into two clearly defined groups: us/them, in/out, life/death, before/after, etc., or that use sharp contrasts in other ways, like categorical purity; those that reference extremes, as in things that are complete, or overwhelmingly large, or vanishingly small or brief; those that reference order or chaos, or their elements, like simplicity, balance, regularity, harmony, etc.
Personal Experience – those that refer to what’s going on in our heads as we encounter a situation, including anticipation, wondering about hidden information and mysteries, discovery, realization, and surprisingness.
Directed Imagination – these have two main aspects, a social aspect (who’s saying this?) and a vividness aspect. They include cultural authority (we all know that something is “good” or “bad” or even maybe “sacred”) or specific trusted voices; they can direct us toward situations that they think should interest us and give us memorable details; they can provide fresh perspectives or make familiar things look strange to us.
I’ve written a book on the topic, but it has yet to be published. Stay tuned!
The Meta-Narrator 