Semiotics – the study of signs

C S Pierce, an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist, divided signs into three distinct categories:

An Iconic Sign: (a sign that looks like its object) the newspaper, the television, the radio

An Indexical Sign: (a sign that has a link to its object) the word ‘Media’, the words ‘DAILY NEWS’, the Facebook ‘F’

A Symbolic Sign: (a sign that has an arbitrary or random link to its object) YouTube logo, Instagram logo, Snapchat logo