Download - Semiotics The science of signs
![Page 1: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Semiotics
The science of signs
![Page 2: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Semiotics
"the study of signs and symbols in various fields, esp. language." - OED
![Page 3: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Rhetoric
"the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing." - OED
"language designed to persuade or impress (often with an implication of insincerity or exaggeration etc.)" - OED
![Page 4: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Semiotics and rhetoric in relation to journalism
Any proposition (a statement or assertion) can be expressed in a variety of ways. In any given situation journalists find the way that will be the most effective in swaying their audience.
News organisations and their journalists use semiotics and rhetoric in order to cause a desired effect. Some would call this “putting a spin” on the news.
However, each media organisation has a set of its own signs that establish the relationship between the organisation and its audience.
![Page 5: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
As human beings we communicate with each other and, as a result, produce a host of messages,
symbolism and signifying systems and, naturally, also have to interpret all sorts of messages.
A simple model representing the way we communicate with each other looks like this:
![Page 6: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
In communicating with each other we produce meanings that require decoding. A knowledge of semiotics allows us to do this more thoroughly.
![Page 7: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Semiotics, or semiology, was founded, separately, by American philosopher Charles S Pierce (1839-1914)
and Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913).
Leading modern semiotic theorists include Roland Barthes (1915-1980), Algirdas Greimas (1917-1992),
Yuri Lotman (1922-1993), Christian Metz (1931-1993), Umberto Eco (b 1932) and Julia Kristeva (b 1941).
“semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign” (Umberto Eco).
![Page 8: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Saussure said a sign composed of:
a 'signifier' - the form which the sign takes; and the 'signified' - the concept it represents.
Put simply, a sign is a pattern of data which, when perceived, brings to mind something other than itself.
![Page 9: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Look at the following for a few moments.
![Page 10: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
What does what you have just seen mean to you? Write these thoughts down.
Your thoughts on the sign you have just seen are, clearly:
a perception of something that exists in the physical world
an object or concept to which the perception is said to refer
a thought, image or concept that is formed in the mind as a result of the perception and which relates to the object
![Page 11: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Repeat the exercise with:
![Page 12: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Repeat the exercise with:
![Page 13: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Repeat the exercise with:
![Page 14: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Repeat the exercise with:
![Page 15: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Repeat the exercise with:
![Page 16: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
More terminology...
the sign: something which is perceived, but which stands for something else
the concept: the thoughts or images that are brought to mind by the perception of the sign
the object: the "something else" in the world to which the sign refers
![Page 17: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
A semiotic model provides a way to talk about how our thoughts can be expressed in terms of the world
outside of our minds.
The triangle of meaning (Ogden & Richards, The Meaning of Meaning, 1923)
![Page 18: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
There are three basic types of signs: the icon, the index, and the symbol.
Icon - a sign that resembles or imitates its object (eg a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors, SFX)
Index - a sign that is physically connected to its object (eg natural signs such as smoke, footprints; medical symptoms such as pulse, pain; directional signposts; rain, sunshine etc on a TV weather map)
Symbol - a sign whose relationship to its object is arbitrary (eg language in general, alphabets, punctuation, numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags)
![Page 19: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
News organisations could be considered “semiotic manipulators” as they attempt to seduce, persuade and
manipulate their audience.
The relationship that we have with the news organisations that we trust is a relationship between object and
consumer.
We tend to consume our news from organisations that we ourselves feel aligned to.
![Page 20: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Consider how you consume news – are you complicit in allowing media outlets a level of control over the information that you are allowed to experience?
Do you consent to being told what you, as a receiver of information, are allowed to think?
Those who control media organisations – the media gatekeepers – assume that they have full control over
semiotics and audience manipulation.
![Page 21: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
How does the decline of 'old media' and the increase of information dissemination and increased news flow threaten/undermine a media organisation's ability to
manipulate its audience?
![Page 22: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
So, we can use semiotics to deconstruct and analyse texts. However, whilst content analysis involves a quantitative approach to the analysis of the manifest 'content' of media texts, semiotics seeks to analyse media texts as structured wholes and investigates latent, connotative meanings. Semiotics is rarely quantitative.
![Page 23: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Conduct a semiotic analysis of a media text
Start by... selecting your media text
![Page 24: Semiotics The science of signs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061503/56813a32550346895da21b69/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Semiotics
The science of signs