Barthes – French social and literary critic Roland Barthes is the leading structuralist thinker of the 20th Century. He draws on Saussure’s conception of semiotics: the science of the way signs behave within society. In particular, Barthes examines the arbitrariness of signs within communication systems, such as texts.
Pierce – C.S.Peirce was a scientist and philosopher best known as the earliest proponent of pragmatism. An influential thinker and polymath, Pierce is among the greatest of American minds. His thought was a seminal influence upon William James, his life long friend, and upon John Dewey, his one time student.
Saussure – Saussure argues that the goal of linguistics should be to identify the elements of a language, to classify them and finally describe the their combination rules in a syn-chronic structure. This view was in contrast with the predominant dia-chronic perspectives of that time.
Semiotics – The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.
Sign – An object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else.
Signifier – A sign’s physical form (such as a sound, printed word, or image) as distinct from its meaning.
Iconic sign – signs where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g., a picture.
Signified – the meaning or idea expressed by a sign, as distinct from the physical form in which it is expressed.
Indexical sign – signs where the signifier is caused by the signified, e.g., smoke signifies fire
Symbolic sign – signs where the relation between signifier and signified is purely conventional and culturally specific, e.g., most words.
Code – a system of words, letters, figures, or symbols used to represent others, especially for the purposes of secrecy.
Ideology – a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.
Paradigm – a typical example or pattern of something; a pattern or model.
Syntagm – a widely held but false belief or idea. Make people believe a different idea.
Signification – the representation or conveying of meaning.
Denotation – What is actually there. What the image is.
Connotation – What something represents.
Myth – Myth in media analysis refers to how words and images are systematically used to communicate cultural and political meanings
