Semiotics

AS Media Studies

What is Semiotics?

• Semiotics (or semiology in America) is the study of how meaning is created and communicated
• It is essential in Media Studies as we need to describe, explain, and account for the ways that audiences understand the meanings of texts

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Signs, signifiers and signifieds

• One of the most important figures in semiotics is Ferdinand de Saussure.
• He suggested that a word, picture, sound etc, formed a signifier. The concept that it suggested was a signified. The combination of these two elements created a sign.
• It is important to remember that one signifier can have many different signifieds.

Signs

Confused?

• David Crystal says:
• Some words do have meanings which are relatively easy to conceptualise, but we certainly do not have neat visual images corresponding to every word we say. Nor is there any guarantee that a concept which might come to mind when I use the word table is going to be the same as the one you, the reader, might bring to mind.

Task

• Think about this signifier:
• FRUIT
• Write down or draw what is signified by that signfier.
• How many different ideas does this one signifier suggest?
• Try again with the signifier:

CHAIR

• Any clearer?

Arbitrariness of the Sign

• De Saussure was keen to emphasise that, in most cases, associations of words and concepts were random.
• There is no reason why the sounds used to say the word “sister” should mean a female sibling
• We understand the sign systems of our culture because we have learned them.
• They are CULTURAL CONVENTIONS
• This has implications for people who are not part of our culture (whatever that is…)

Cultural Conditioning

• Because sign systems depend on Cultural Conventions, this means that the values and ideologies of that culture are carried in the sign systems. We have lots of detailed signs for things which our culture deems to be “important”.

Denotation and Connotation

• The signifiers “Al-Quaeda Terrorist” and “Islamic Freedom Fighter” could denote the same person, but the connotations are very different.
• Thus we can say that, in analysing meaning, signifiers are chosen not so much by what they do mean as what they don’t
• Its meaning is determined by the rejection of all the other signs we have chosen not to use

Paradigms and Syntagms

• A paradigm is a set of associated signs which are all members of the same category. E.g. stallion, mare, donkey, mule and ass are all signs in the paradigm of “horse”
• A syntagm is a sequence of signs that are chosen to communicate a meaning.
• A paradigm is all the clothes in your wardrobe; a syntagm is the clothes you have chosen to wear today

Example of Paradigms and Syntagms

Killed

Murdered

Destroyed

Sacrificed

Slaughtered

Executed

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Terrorists

Insurgents

Freedom fighters

Martyrs

Killers

Hijackers

Suicide bombers

Jihadists

Islamic

Muslim

Al-Quaeda

Middle-Eastern

Asian

Iraqi

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Media Paradigms

• Paradigms are not just words
• Transitions between shots in a film are also a paradigm. The choice of a cut, dissolve, fade, wipe or fancy computer transition will impact on meaning.
• Likewise fast, slow or normal motion; soft, warm, cold, harsh or gentle lighting…
• All these choices impact on the meaning
• Audience have learned what is signified by each of these choices.

Different Types of Signs

• Signs are divided into three categories:
• ICONS
• SYMBOLS
• INDEXES

ICONS

• In these signs, the signifiers resemble (look like) the signified.
• E.g. photos, drawings, onomatopoeic words
• Vroom-vroom

SYMBOLS

• These are the most common signs. It is culturally agreed what the signifier signifies
• Examples are most words, traffic lights, road signs, some hand gestures etc.

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INDEXES

• An index is a sign whose signifier we have learnt to associate with a particular signified.
• E.g. we may see smoke as an index of 'fire'. A thermometer is an index of 'temperature’. Sweat can be an index of ‘exercise’, ‘nervousness’, or ‘sickness’.

Crossover Signs

• Signs can be a mixture of iconic, indexical and symbolic!

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Task

• Take a simple media text (print) – CD cover, poster, advertisement.
• Annotate the semiotic elements of the text
• Look for
• Iconic, Symbolic and Indexical signifiers
• Denotation and connotation
• The paradigms that the signs are chosen from to create the syntagm you have in front of you
• The possibility of multiple signifieds…