Semiotics blog task

Semiotics

English by Tarun Thind

• What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film?

The short film encourages the audience to see them in a bad light. That they look like they are apart of the gang and a part of the lower class of the society. It is showed by their behaviour, the way they clothes and their situation that they are in.

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

At the end of the short film, it gives everyone the narrative on what's really going on and gives a clear message. In the end the characters were deaf and had to act they way that they act because of how society works. Society see's them as gangsters, low life's that has nothing to do. But what they actually are is two deaf people trying to live in society which makes life really hard for them.

On the theory of semiotics

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

the signifier and signified. The signifier meaning the thing that does the communication, for example a picture of a dog. The picture of a dog is just a dog so it communicates you that it's a dog. The signified is the mental concept of it. So if we take the picture of the dog the signified could mean cute, cuddly, mean, aggressive.

• What does "polysemy" mean?

Meaning there two or more meanings in one particular sign.

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

Naturalised meaning there is a dominant meaning, like a myth. For example a picture of a women with training clothes has a dominant meaning of her going to the gym or the woman working out in the gym. So it has a main meaning but could have other meanings as well but it is overshadowed by that main meaning.

• What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?

Barthe's made these 5 narrative codes so they can give a better understanding to different narratives. There 5 codes but you don't need to use all of them at once, you mainly use 3 but you can use all of 5 of them.

• The first one is Hermeneutic code or 'enigma code', which is anything that is left as a mystery or unexplained. It raises questions from the viewers which can give a better understanding or leave some confused.

• Second is Proairetic code or ‘action code’. Its a order of events that happends that can suggest the future. For example a character which puts water in a coffee jug and puts it in the coffee machine, the proairectic code suggests that the character is going to make coffee.

• Next is Semantic code. Text that has a deeper meaning to it. Basically its connotations its has the same definition so you can say its the same thing.

• Then there is Symbolic code which is anything that symbolic. For example it could be a statue, a item, the lighting, etc...

• And finally there is the cultural code. Which is any meaning that is learned from a external source. For example a traffic stop lights up green, you wouldn't green was go unless you learned it from someone else.

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

• Russian Doll is about a female character that is stuck in a time loop, when they die to go back to a certain point of time. Its just like the movie groundhog where there is a time loop as well. The magazine suggests that you learn the narrative pretty early on because of the different camera shot which shows different objects move through linear time. But also the title can show a symbolic meaning. Russian doll meaning more versions of yourselves inside of you, so people can read and analzyse different  codes to give a better understanding of the narrative.

Icon, Index and Symbol

Find two examples for each icon, index and symbol

Icon:

Index:

Symbol:

• Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?

Icons and indexes are so important in media texts because it help and makes the audience understands what it wants to represent. It help with the narrative and gives the intended message it want to give instead of leaving the audience confused.

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

Because symbols might give the wrong message to some audience. Some audience might take it offensive because they have their own meaning.

• 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?

In April of 2017, Pepsi posted a add of the famous celebrity Kendall Jenner giving a can of Pepsi to police officers in a protest type of environment. This ad failed horrible and very controversial to a lot of their targeted audience. This was because people felt like Pepsi used the protests, riots as a way to earn money out of it instead of focusing on the important issues.

Additional Semiotics terminology

• The new Media specification identifies further semiotics terminology that could potentially appear in an exam question. Read this document with semiotic terms and definitions to become a true semiotician. 
• Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10c9M_BAuH8_vgy1AK-Hu-Tjqgglcpgne/view?usp=sharing