semiology

• anchorage


  producers will try to direct the audience's interpretation towards a preferred reading of a media text by using this

  e.g slogans, captions, headlines
• myth


  idea that signs contribute to certain ideologies in society

  blue= boy

  argued by Barthes
• lexical codes


  codes that help anchor meaning of a text and position the preferred reading
• sign


  use of images/words/objects etc to convey/communicate meaning

  signifer+ signified= sign

  physical form of sign
• signified


  the meaning we associate with the sign

  typically in image form - the mental concept of the sign
• Signifiers


  works with signified to create a sign

  typically in word form - the symbol
• code


  system used to create meaning
• structuralism


  analysing culture that prioritises its form/culture over function
• post-structuralism


  later work on structuralism that both extends its idea
• symbolic codes


  images that represent something else

  e.g heart=love
• semantic codes


  codes that we understand have a hidden meaning/ connote meaning

  e.g red= horror, blood
• proairetic code/action code


  codes that signify something is going to happen
• hermeneutic codes/enigma code


  codes that evoke mystery

  e.g clickbait titles/ headlines
• cultural/referential codes


  codes that have cultural references

  e.g cameos, pop culture, historical references

  not all may understand or relate
• Barthes


  argued 5 narrative codes

  Hermeneutic, proairetic,semantic, symbolic, cultural codes

  argued the order of signification
• order of signification


  1. Denotation- recognition of sign

  2. Connotation- interpreting sign with several meanings

  3. Myth/Ideology- giving signs certain meaning reflecting dominant ideology
• first order of signification

  the recognition of the agreed meaning of a sign

  signifier+ signifed= sign
• second order of signification

  A layered and more subtle interpretation of a complex sign

  having several meanings for a sign
• third order of signification

  myths and ideology encoded in signs that bring shared cultural connotations
• typographical codes


  codes based on font style
• camera proxemics


  the distance / relationship between subject and audience
• Ferdinand de Saussure


  signification process

  signifier+signified= sign

  e.g open sign

  word 'open' (signifier) + context 'on the shop door' (signified) = open sign

  argued paradigm & syntagms
• syntagm


  deals with arrangement of signs/words/images into a linear sequence

  e.g branch + leaves + green= tree
• paradigm


  refers to how we can create differentiation in meaning- choosing certain word choice/ signs to create specific meaning

  
  

  we might write: "the boy cried"but if we write "the man cried" there is a change in meaning
• Charles pierce


  created the triadic model

  1. representamen (physical form of sign)

  2. object (meaning)

  3. interpretant (mental concept)

  model depicted as a triangle as can start at any point

  
  

  argued arbitrary/symbolic signs, iconic and indexical signs
• iconic signs


  signs where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g picture of a tree resembles a real life tree
• arbitrary/symbolic sign

  A relationship between signifier and signified that is not obvious but meaning is agreed on by users

  e.g highway codes- only know if you learnt them
• indexical signs


  signs where the signifier is caused by the signified

  e.g smoke signifies fire

  cause and effect relationships between signifier and signified