Semiotics Blog Task

 Part 1)

1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main

 characters from the opening of the film?

we are encouraged to believe that not everyone is as they seem on the surface and that instead it is the actions of these people that make them up as the people they are truly such as when English takes a banana from poor homeless man and returns it in a bunch showing that his intentions were completely good natured.

2) How does the end of the film emphasise de Saussure’s belief that signs are polysemic – open to interpretation or more than one meaning?

The actions of the actors clearly depict how signs are polysemic as when English 'says' "the most important thing in communication is hearing what inst being said" this aptly shows Saussure's belief in how even when communicating all the context behind the conversation and everything that is implied through it through different tone of stress can give completely different meanings such as those of the two actors in the short film who may come off as quite rough and uncaring yet are revealed to have good motives for their actions even if they are misunderstood.   

Part 2) Media Magazine theory drop: Semiotics 

1) What did Ferdinand de Saussure suggest are the two parts that make up a sign?

-The Signifier

-The signified

2) What does ‘polysemic’ mean?

-A sign can have more than one meaning

3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’?

-When something is turned into a myth and nobody questions that signs symbolic meaning

e.g The alphabet

4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?

-Enigma code/Hermeneutic 

-Cultural code

-Symbolic code

-Semantic code

-Action code/Proairetic 

5) How does the writer suggest Russian Doll (Netflix) uses narrative codes?

-The Russian doll uses its symbolic code in the title as it represents the narrative of the story in the fact that the world gets smaller every time they die, the same as a Russian doll getting smaller every time you take one out

-Enigma code is used in the show when the camera pans to fruit that has been rotting since the first of their deaths and nobody has decided to comment on it

Part 3) Icons, indexes and symbols

1) Find two examples for each: icon, index and symbol. Provide images or links.

Icon: 

Index:

Symbol: Radioactive, Christianity

2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?

They can be Polysemic and so have many meanings that can be analysed and give meaning to the piece of media

3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing?

Indexes are much more simple and recognisable compared to symbols which are basically just letters arranged to make a word which would not stand out 

4) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) where the producer has accidentally communicated the wrong meaning using icons, indexes or symbols. Why did the media product fail?

The Caduceus staff is often associated with medicine however being the staff of Hermes it symbolises thievery and negotiation rather than medicine which many make the mistake of associating with, sometimes in media this staff is used to represent a doctor or medical practitioner and is used so incorrectly which then confuses people between the meanings of the two staffs.

5) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) that successfully uses icons or indexes to create a message that can be easily understood across the world.

I would say that the introduction of the Peace index being the letters N and D in the Semaphore alphabet (conveying letters with flag/hand signs) could be seen as a successful use of an index as it conveys the idea of peace through 'N'uclear 'D'isarmament allowing people to understand the the use of this symbol is entirely and only that of peaceful relations and can not be misinterpreted. 

Extension work: additional semiotics terminology

Anchorage

Fixes meaning between pictures and text. The words that accompany an image (still or moving) contribute to the meaning associated with that image. the caption or voice-over is changed then so may the way in which the audience interprets the image. An image with an anchor is a closed text; the audience are given a preferred reading. A text without an anchor is an open text as the audience can interpret it as they wish. The same image of a school in a local newspaper could include a negative or a positive headline, which may change the way in which the same image is viewed by the reader.

symbolic sign

A sign where the meaning of it is culturally acquired.

Code

A system used to create meaning.

Ideology

Codes that reinforce or are congruent with structures of power. Ideology works largely by creating

Myth

The way in which certain signs contribute to ideologies in our society.

Paradigm

Paradigmatic relations are where signs get meaning from their association with other signs: a set of signs from which one might be chosen to contribute to a syntagm. Paradigms define their individual members with reference to all others in the set.

Syntagm

Syntagmatic relations are where signs get meaning from their sequential order, e.g. grammar or the sequence of events that make up a story. AQA describes this as a chain of signs, a unique combination of sign choices. Units may be visual, verbal or musical. The scale of the units and syntagms may range from the very large (the nine planned episodes of the Star Wars triple trilogy might constitute a syntagm) to the very small (as in the syntagm ‘I like noodles’ which consists of the signs ‘I’, ‘like’ and ‘noodles’). The important point is that syntagms invite negotiation as a whole; they are bigger units of potential meaning. The signs which comprise a syntagm are organised in accordance with the ‘rules’ or conventions of the relevant code.

Metonymy

A kind of connotation where in one sign is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government or of the sword for military power.

Discourse

The topics, language and meanings or values behind them within a media text. The discourse of lifestyle magazines, for example, tends to revolve around body image and narcissism.