Systems of signs. Symbols that represent something.
Convention
Ways of using media codes.
Dominant Signifier
A signifier is the item that we ‘read’, such as a picture or sign. The dominant signifier is the most important signifier
Anchorage
Words that accompany an image and give the meaning associated with the image. This gives the image a specific context.
Ferdinand de Saussure
Signifier
The item, image or sign that we ‘read’ and take meaning from.
Signified
The meaning that we take and express from the signifier.
C S Pierce
Icon
A sign that looks like its object.
Index
A sign that has a link to its object
Symbol
A sign that has an arbitrary or random link to its object (eg. colour)
Roland Barthes
Signification
The representation of the meaning.
Denotation
A description of what we can see in the image.
Connotation
The meanings and associations we have with the image, the deeper meaning.
Myth
How words and images are systematically used to communicate cultural and political meanings.
Ideology
A body of ideas or set of beliefs that people have regarding different technologies.
Radical
Something that goes against the stereotypical norm, something that you wouldn’t typically expect.
Reactionary
Something that stays in line with a stereotype. Something that you would expect.
Paradigm
A collection of signs that are connected and relatable to each other.
Syntagm
A collection of signs and how they are put together as one
Without anchorage, Roland Barthes suggests that media imagery is likely to produce polysemic connotations or multiple meanings. Anchorage constructs “a vice which holds the connoted meanings from proliferating” (Barthes 2007).
