In search of the myth in multicultural website design: the case of English university website versions in the British, the American and the Greek locale

Abstract

Barthes (1957) has argued that the two orders of signification, namely denotation and connotation, combine to produce a myth which usually remains unobserved as it is very often taken for granted. Myths traverse various aspects of life in western societies and become evident in different forms of communication. In the present article we will attempt to investigate the ideology behind university website design through the comparative study of British and American website macrostructure with Greek websites translated into English. The present research is expected to shed some light on the unexplored area of university website design as semiosis and highlight possible points of convergence or divergence regarding education ideology in original English and translated (into English) Greek university websites.