Since cavemen humankind has been striving for communication. Mind you, the messages are quite different from then; instead of drawings showing what one should run away from, nowadays one will rather communicate the meaning of our complex experience of the world. Nevertheless, the study of ‘visual grammar’ is important to no take for granted, as it opens many topics of discussion. Media mainly produces images; pictorial or textual, each conveying meaning from the world to then be expressed to the audience. When looked closely however, ‘the truth’ implied within media may hold a different agenda. It can structure and manipulate reality which they want to describe, depending on their interests, needs or agenda (Branston, 2003). This manipulation is expressed in many different forms: from expressive ways of talking or writing to the choice of including or excluding something within a picture, article or speech. Many academics came to this conclusion by using semiotics and thereafter deconstructing the meaning within the language of media. This web blog will look at various cases of what this may entail. Beforehand it is important to grasp the methodology of semiotics to understand how meaning is constructed, produced, expressed and embedded into society for further in depth analysis.
Semiotics is the study and interpretation of visual signs. Berger (2010) defines a sign as “something that stands for something else… a material object unified in the mind with a particular cultural concept” (p. 6). Linguistics such as Ferdinande de Saussure aimed to show the social construction of ideas or myths through the use of signs and its ability to be embeded and therefore further shape meaning in our personal, cultural, national or collective experience. Language has the capability to express ideas, beliefs or anxieties. All of this is influenced by current events, thus signs are never fixed. In this case, signs can studied at a certain point in time (synchronicaly) or as they develop over time (diachronically). Additionally, through language, we understand the world in opposites. Saussure entails we know what one thing means if we know the opposite, for instance: love and hate (Berger, 2010). Signs stand for something else in a unified way between a physical word-object (signifier) and a corresponding, culturally accustomed meaning or idea (signified). To illustrate, the written word ‘man’ has nothing to do with an actual man. This shows that the way the word sounds or is written, doesn’t determine the actual object, rather it is something separate completely learned for maintaining structure and communication. While the signified entails the conceptual grasp produced in our minds of the meaning of ‘man’ once the word or abstract figure is heard or seen (Branston, 2003)
Charles S. Pierce divides signs into three kinds: firstly, icons resemble what they are signifying. For example; a picture of a man signifies it is one by its resemblance. Then there are symbols, for which the meanings are based on convention, which needs to be taught and learned. The meaning and the relationship of what is expressed is arbitrary. Symbols are used a lot in literary texts and language; with the help of metaphors, hyperbole, etc. To illustrate, the symbolic representation of enlightenment is the all seeing eye, or the colour black can signify death. Lastly, indexical signs indicate further meaning which signify by causal connections between the signifier and signified. To illustrate; a picture of a stick-man on a door is an indexical sign that there is a restroom nearby. For another example; one can think of smoke; it is the signifier of a fire, therefore it can be signifying danger (Branston, 2003) (Berger, 2010). The indexical signs may not reveal their meaning equally to all, depending on the current knowledge they possess.
In result this methodology becomes useful research method as it allows an in-depth analysis, by looking at the connotations (conventional meaning) and denotations (what can be ‘physically seen’). The main purpose is to identify hidden codes which, once internalized, have the capability to shape our beliefs and responses, as they are the way we see and communicate. Thereafter semiotics become important in its ability to explain how people find meaning and as a response how others manipulate it.
This is not a M-A-N.
References:
Berger, A. A. (2010). The objects of affection: semiotics and consumer culture, .p. 3-31 London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Branston, G. & Stafford, R. (2003). The media student’s book, p. 11-17. London/New York: Psychology Press.