Barthes – One of the leading theorists of semiotics, which is the study of signs.

C S Pierce – A scientist and philosopher best known for being the earliest supporter of pragmatism.

Ferdinand De Saussure – A Swiss linguist and semiotician.

Semiotics – The study of signs and symbols and their interpretations.

Sign – An object or event regarded as an indication of what has happened or is going to happen.

Signifier – The object.

Signified – The meaning or idea expressed by a sign.

Icon – A thing or person regarded as a representative symbol.

Index – A sign or measure of something.

Symbol – A mark or character used as a conventional representation of an object, process or function.

Code – A system of letters, words, symbols or figures used to represent others.

Dominant Signifier – The most important sign.

Anchorage – When one piece of media uses another to reduce the amount of connotations in the first piece.

Ideology – A set of beliefs that an entity or person has.

Paradigm – An example or pattern of something; a pattern or model.

Syntagm – When a sign appears in a sequence that creates a different meaning.

Signification – The process of making something.

Denotation – Barthes – the object the thing.

Connotation – an idea or feeling that is abstract to the meaning of intentions.

Myth – A false belief or idea.

Radical text – Challenges the dominant ideology.

TASK 2: Write up a blog post that provides a short definition for the following terms:

1. Barthes = a French philosopher who came up with the idea of semiotics.
2. Pierce = Pierce introduced Pragmatism in the 1870’s. This means that for any statement to have meaning, it must have practical bearings.
3. Saussure = A Swiss professor of linguistics who changed how language was understood
4. Semiotics = The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation often used in language or other forms of communication.
5. Sign = an object, quality
6. Signifier = comes from sassure and is the object
7. Signified
8. An Iconic Sign = which has a direct connection to its’ object (ie it looks or sounds like the object)
9. An Indexical Sign = which has an indirect link to its’ object (think smells)
10. A Symbolic Sign = which has a random or arbitary link based on a shared knowledge or an agreement, for example, a shared culture or language (think letters, words, writing, shapes, squiggles, colours, sound effects, facial expressions, hand gestures, clothing, hair styles, etc).
11. Code = a system of words/ figures or symbols that is used to represent others
12. Dominant Signifier = the most important sign
13. Anchorage = a sign that fixes the meaning
14. Ideology = a set of beliefs
15. Paradigm = a group of things
16. Syntagm = a series or pattern of signs that when they are connected, mean something
17. Signifcation = the process of making meaning
18. Denotation = Barthes came up with this. The object/thing
19. Connotation = An idea, association or feeling invoked alongside a literal meaning.
20. Myth = the ideas that are created by the connotation. Create a dominant ideology
21. A radical text = challenges the dominant ideology
22. A reactionary text = supports the dominant ideology

Barthes – A French leading theorist of semiotics.

C S Pierce – An American philosopher, scientist and mathematician sometimes known as the “father of pragmatism.”

Ferdinand De Saussure – A Swiss linguist and semiotician.

Semiotics – The study of signs and symbols and their use/interpretations.

Sign – An object, quality or event regarded as an indication of what is happening or what is going to happen.

Signified – The meaning/idea expressed by a sign.

Icon – A person/thing regarded as a representative symbol.

Index – A sign/measure of something.

Symbol – A mark/character used as a conventional representation of an object, function or process used o represent something such as an organisation.

Code – A system of words/letters/figures/ symbols used to represent others, especially for the purpose of secrecy. A phrase or concept used to represent others in an indirect way.

Dominant Signifier – main accepted meaning of a sign.

Anchorage – When a piece of media uses another piece of media to reduce the amount of connotations in the first piece.

Ideology – An ideology is a set of beliefs and values that a person or other entity has.

Paradigm – An example or pattern of something; a pattern or model.

Syntagm – When a sign appears in a sequence that creates a different meaning.

Signification – A representation or conveying of a message.

Denotation – The literal meaning of words in contrast to what the word suggests.

Connotation – an idea or feeling that is abstract to the meaning of intentions.

Myth – A false belief or idea.

 

1. Barthes – A french philosopher and one of the leading theorists of semiotics.
2. C S Pierce – An American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist. He is sometimes known as “the father of pragmatism.”
3. Saussure – A Swiss linguist and semanticist. Widely considered one of the founders of 20th century linguistics.
4. Semiotics – The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.
5. Sign – An event or object that is suggested as an indication or what is happening or going to happen.
6. Signifier – A signs physical form. For example, sound, image or a printed word.
7. Signified – An idea that is expressed by the sign.
8. Icon – A sign that is designed to look like an object that it represents.
9. Index – A sign or measure of something.
10. Symbol –
11. Code –
12. Dominant Signifier – The most important sign.
13. Anchorage – A sign that fixes the meaning.
14. Ideology – A set of ideas/beliefs/values.
15. Paradigm – A group of things/a pattern.
16. Syntagm – A series of signs that are put together.
17. Signifcation – The process of making me
18. Denotation – Barthes
19. Connotation – Barthes
20. Myth – The ideas created by connotations.
21. A radical text – Challenges dominant ideology.
22. A reactionary text – Agrees with ideology.

Barthes – One of the leading theorists of semiotics. Denotation and Connotation

C S Pierce – A scientist and philosopher best known as the earliest supporter of pragmatism (an approach that evaluates theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application). Iconic, Indexical and symbolic signs.

Ferdinand De Saussure – A Swiss linguist and semiotician. Signifier and Signified

Semiotics – The study of signs and symbols as well as, their use or meaning.

Sign – An object or event relating to what is happening or going to happen.

Signifier – A sign’s physical form (such as a sound, printed word or image).

Signified – The meaning or idea presented by a sign.

Iconic Sign – Physically resembles what ‘it stands for’ (Looks like)

Indexical Sign – (Using sensory features) signs where the signifier is caused by the signified, e.g., smoke signifies fire

Symbol – A mark or character used as a representation of an object, function, or process/ A shape or sign used to represent something such as an organization. (Random)

Code – A system of words, letters, figures, or symbols used to represent others, especially for the purposes of secrecy/ A phrase or concept used to represent another in an indirect way.

Dominant Signifier – The most important sign on the page e.g a key/ main image.

Anchorage – When a piece of media uses another piece of media to reduce the amount of connotations in the first piece – so it can have a fixed meaning.

Ideology – An ideology is a set of beliefs and values that a person may have.

Paradigm – A typical example or pattern of something; a pattern or model. A set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles.

Syntagm – A unit where signs occur in sequence or parallel and go together to create meaning.

Signification – The representation or conveying of meaning/ importance.

Denotation – The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests (Connotation).

Connotation – An idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Myth – A widely held but false belief or idea/ misinterpretation of the truth.

Dominant Ideology – Attitudes, beliefs, values shared by the majority of people in a society.

A Radical Text – Texts which challenge the dominant ideology

A reactionary Text – Texts which support the dominant ideology

• 

• Iconic signs grass, gun, people
• symbolic signs: colours – orange, purple, letters, pound sign (they are all arbitrary, random, shared and agreed.
• indexical – (linked to something) woman looks confident, strong, independent, because she is holding a gun, body language, facial expressions. Also, they all look like they are linked to war or conflict.

Iconic signs:

1. People
2. Alien
3. Weapons

Indexical Sign:

Media Summer Task

For my magazine cover I first off had to choose a game, I had decided on the Injustice universe games. The first game’s title is “Injustice: God’s among us” and the sequels title is “Injustice 2”. Both games go off of the storyline of the Superhero ‘Superman’ becoming evil and being the main antagonist in the first game as well as the second game.

 Because of this I decided to put him in the center of my magazine cover with red glowing eyes, ready to shoot heat vision. To get the image I went onto Google images and picked an image that I thought would capture his evil essence. However, because I did this with all my images I don’t know if they have any copyright claims that any owners could potentially use against me and therefore sue me.

Because there is an antagonist on the cover there must also be the protagonist, in this case it is Batman. Batman also feels as if he is partly to blame for why Superman has become evil. Because of this I wanted to get an image of Batman not looking happy or sad, however I did get an image of him looking very determined and serious. I decided to put Batman’s layer over Superman’s layer because it generally went well with the aesthetic and overall looks better if it were the other way around. Batman is wearing his second game costume as it represents he is a new man from who he was before.

The last and final superhero character that is on the front cover is ‘The Flash’. I chose ‘The Flash’ because in the first game he is an Antagonist somewhat against his will. Yet, in the second game he has been given a redemption and is on his way to becoming a Superhero once again. I decided to choose a picture of him of him running for two main reasons:

1. Reason number one is because it’s simply his ‘superpower’ and it makes sense of him to be using his abilities like Superman and Batman with his utility belt.
2. Reason number two is because it can be representative of him on his ‘run to redemption’ and once again becoming one of the good guys.

For the background I decided to pick an image of ‘Gotham city’ with the Bat torch being shone into the sky. I chose this because it shows the Batman is being in need of service to help save the day. It also shows that Batman is needing to protect his home city where he grew up and protect the ones he loves.

I chose to include a Pan European Game Information (PEGI) rating of 16. PEGI is to help European consumers make decisions when buying items like video games. This rating specifically is to alert the audience that there may be some strong violence and is an action game. This means that young children are recommended not to play it. It also means that if you are under the age of 16 you won’t be able to buy the game in stores.   

Iconic signs:

• PEGI 16 Logo. This links to who should be playing the game.
• Batman Logo (in the Background). This links to heroism.
• Flash Logo (on the Flash suit). The symbol looks like lightning.
• Superman Logo (On the superman logo). This links to heroism.

Indexical signs:

• Batman holding his grappling hook. This links to violence.
• Superman and his eye lasers. This links to violence.
• PEGI 16 Logo. This shows that it’s specific to a certain target audience due to the violence and sensitive issues in the game.

Symbolic signs: