Lesson 1:
Monday 13th September
Semiotics
What is semiotics?
Study of signs. Theory of signs.
The word "semiology" is derived from the Greek word Semeion, which means sign.
Semiology is an attempt to create a science of the study of sign systems and their role in the construction and reconstruction of meaning in media texts.
Semiology concentrates on the text itself and the signs and codes that are contained within it.
Charles Peirce: "A sign is nothing until you give it a meaninig."
Saussure- "The basic unit of the brain is the sign and a sign is anything that makes meaning."
Umberto Eco- "A sign is anything that can be used to tell a lie."
Definition of code:
- Rules or conventions by which signs are put together to create a meaning.
Codes are used to construct meanings, in the english language we use letters to make words, words to make sentences and sentences to make paragraphs. Colours are used to represent code and is symbolic, in real life the colour red is red, however depending on a scene and what is happening (mise en scene) may represent love, romance or death and blood.
Other media texts are used as code for example "im loving it" can be symbolised with the Mcdonalds brand.
Signifier: The object/material
Signified: The meaning. The concept that a signifier refers to.
Denotation: Roughly the literal meaning of the sign.
Connotation: How you perceieve the signifier.
Connnotations involve signifying signs, signs that become the signifier for a second signified.
- The advert uses photographic imagery to advertise its product to the main target audience. Not a lot of written text has been used to capture the image of the advert.
- The rich, bright, royal blue lets the audience know that this is a fragrance targeted towards men.
- The signifier (the man) signifies that wearing this perfume will keep you cool and make you smell cool, that this perfume can "transform" any man into "a hunk".
- the bright blue colour of the sky, sea and perfume bottle capture the eye of the audience
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
