Semiotics

Sign – Something which stand for something else

Code – Technical, written and symbolic tools used to suggest or create meaning in media forms

Convention – Accepted ways of doing something

Dominant signifier – The main representative

Anchorage – Words with an image to give context

Ferdinand de Saussure

Signifier – Stands in for something else

Signified – Idea being evoked by signifier

C S Pierce

Iconic – An icon is something that looks like an object e.g. camera work, sets, props

Index – A sign that has a link to its object e.g. sounds or props

Symbol – A sign that has an arbitrary or random link to its object (colours, shapes, textures)

Roland Barthes

Signification – Structural levels of signification, meaning or representation

Denotation – First level analysis (what a reader can see on the page)

Connotation – Meaning or associations we have with an image

Myth – Naturalises events turning history into nature

Ideology – A world view about how society should function

Radical – Something you would not expect/out of the ordinary

Reactionary – What you would expect/follows stereotypes

Paradigm – A typical example or pattern of something

Syntagym – An orderly combination of interacting signifiers which forms a meaningful whole