MIDTERM ON CHAPTER CAPTIONS , HEADLINES ,DIGITAL JOURNALISM
Semiotics
Daniel Chandler
MCM253-Visual Culture
Semiotics
Semiotics is the science of sign.
The sign is simply anything that stands for something else.
The sign could take different forms. It could be an object, single image, a drawing, or anything that could be seen.
Meaning behind the sign should be learned.
Semiotics
For something to be communicated, the viewer must understand the meaning of it.
Semiotics Key Theorists
1- The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) is the founder of linguistic semiotics.
2- The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914).
3- Charles William Morris (1901-1979), who developed a behaviourist semiotics.
4- Modern semiotic theorists include Roland Barthes (1915-1980), Umberto Eco (b 1932) and Julia Kristeva (b 1941).
Semiotics Approaches and Models
Approaches
Structuralism
Social Semiotics
Cultural Semiotics.
Models
Ferdinand de Saussure (Structuralist)
Charles Sanders Peirce (Structuralist)
Roland Barthes (Cultural Semiotics)
Semiotics Approaches
Structuralism:
Structuralism is an analytical method which has been employed by many semioticians and which is based on Ferdinand de Saussure's linguistic model.
Simple explanation of Structuralist means that analysis of signs is based on levels or a system.
They engage in a search for 'deep structures' underlying the 'surface features' of phenomena.
Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure. Peirce gave structuralism important ideas for Classifying and Analyzing the sign systems that define our visual experiences.
Structuralism Key Theorists
1- The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) is the founder of linguistic semiotics.
2- The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914).
Semiotics Models
Structuralism models: The two dominant models of what constitutes a sign are those of the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.
Model 1- Ferdinand de Saussure
Saussure offered a two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of:
a 'signifier' (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes; and
the 'signified' (signifié) - the concept it represents.
Model 1- Ferdinand de Saussure
Saussure defined a sign as being composed of:
a 'signifier' (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes (The trigger); and
the 'signified' (signifié) - the concept it represents (The meaning)
Model 1- Ferdinand de Saussure
A sign must have both a signifier and a signified. But a signifier could stand for a different signified
Example:
If the signifier is the term ‘open’.
The signified could be:
Visual Semiotic according to Ferdinand de Saussure Model
Signifier
(The trigger)
Signified
(The meaning)
Car
SUV Car
Laptop
BMW Car
Model 2- Charles Pierce
Further, a semiotic structuralist, Charles Pierce,
distinguished between three different types of signs:
Icon/Iconic sign.
Symbol/Symbolic signs.
Indexical sings.
Icon/Iconic signs
a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it)
Model 2- Charles Pierce
Symbol/Symbolic signs
A mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt. The best examples of symbols are flags, food, social and cultural signs. They represent countries even though there is no rational between them and the countries they represent.
Model 2- Charles Pierce
Important rule:
An image could be an icon or symbol based signification and the context where it appears. The context in which an icon appears in can turn into a symbolic sign.
If the signs below appear in an airport they become symbolic signs.
Café
Washroom
Information Desk
Three Symbols of Peace, Justice
Model 2- Charles Pierce
Index/indexical sign
a mode in which the signifier is not directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can be observed. They have a logical, common sense of connection to the thing or idea they represent rather than a direct resemblance to the object. The relationship between a signifier and signified in an indexical sign can be seen as a ‘cause and effect’ connection.
Model 2- Charles Pierce
Index/indexical sign
Semiotics Approaches
Social semiotics
Social Semiotics: Contemporary social semiotics has moved beyond the structuralist concern with the internal relations of parts within a self-contained system, seeking to explore the use of signs in specific social situations.
Semiotics Approaches
Cultural semiotics
This approach began to become a major approach to cultural studies in the late 1960s, partly as a result of the work of Roland Barthes, which is entitled ‘Mythologies’ .
Writing in 1964, Barthes declared that 'semiology aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all of these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification' (Barthes 1967, 9).
The Study of Codes
When studying cultural practices, semioticians treat signs, any objects, or actions which have meaning to members of the cultural group, seeking to identify the rules or conventions of the codes which underlie the production of meanings within that culture.
Codes: a combination of semiotic systems that functions as general maps of meaning, belief systems about oneself and others, which imply views and attitudes about how the world is and/or ought to be.
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Semiotic codes
Code is a set of conventions currently in use to communicate meaning. The most common is one's spoken language, but the term can also be used to visual.
Some codes are universal, otherwise, a viewer must know the cultural code to decode/understand the message.
Types of codes
· Social codes
· Textual codes
· Interpretative codes
Social codes
[In a broader sense all semiotic codes are 'social codes']
Verbal language
Bodily codes (bodily contact, proximity,, appearance, facial expression, gaze, head nod shakes, handshake, gestures);
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-26390944
Commodity codes (fashions, clothing, cars, and so on)
Behavioural codes (protocols, rituals).
Textual codes
Textual codes are Representational
Scientific codes, including mathematics;
aesthetic codes within the various expressive arts (drama, painting, music, etc.).
Genre, rhetorical and stylistic codes: narrative (plot, character, action, dialogue, setting, etc.).
Mass media codes including photographic, televisual, filmic, radio, newspaper and magazine codes, both technical and conventional (including format).
Scientific codes,
Photographic
Aesthetic codes, music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1avWJELB9Ek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxquiHIALjo
Interpretative (Ideological) codes
Ideological codes:
Specifically, we may list the 'isms', such as, Individualism, liberalism, feminism, capitalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism, consumerism; (note, however, that all codes can be seen as ideological).
Individualism: The Matrix (1999)- Science Fiction.
Feminism movies: The Color Purple (1985), Whale Rider' (2002), Farida (2004). (Farida Kahlo).
Individualism Example: The Matrix (1999)
Examine the interpretative code in the following scenes in Saladin movie?
Interpretative Code: example of Ideology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yTECOLwyD4
How many times the Arabs or the Arab Watan (Home) mentioned ?
4: 45 – 7:20
Interpretative Code example: Ideology
4: 45 – 7:20 (Less than 3 minutes)
The term, Arabs, was mentioned 7 times
The terms, Arabism and Arab Watan, were mentioned 4 times
Saladin was representative of ideology of Arab Nationalism in 1960s
Model 3- Roland Barthes
Denotation, Connotation and Myth
In semiotics, denotation and connotation are terms describing the relationship between the signifier and its signified, and an analytic distinction is made between two types of signifieds: a denotative signified and a connotative signified. Meaning includes both denotation and connotation.
Model 3- Roland Barthes
Denotation, Connotation and Myth
Denotation is a description of the signified. The term 'connotation' is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional etc.) Signs are more open to interpretation - in their connotations than their denotations.
Model 3- Roland Barthes
Denotation, Connotation and Myth
Roland Barthes argued that in a photography connotation can be (analytically) distinguished from denotation. Denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed.
Denotation can be seen as the ‘surface description of the photograph’. Connotation is seen as the deeper meaning in a photograph.
Model 3- Roland Barthes
Denotation, Connotation and Myth
Connotations are not purely 'personal' meanings - they are determined by the codes to which the interpreter has access.
As Roland Barthes noted, Saussure's model of the sign focused on denotation at the expense of connotation.
Myth: Related to connotation is what Roland Barthes refers to as myth. But for Barthes myths were the dominant ideologies of our time.
Denotation Vs Connotation
Denotation describes surface meanings or: What is photographed, and what is surface meaning?
Connotation describes in-depth meaning: How it is photographed? What it is implied?