Key language:

Semiotics

1. Sign – Stands in for something else
2. Code – Symbolic tools used to create meaning
3. Convention – Accepted ways of using media code
4. Dominant Signifier – The main representative
5. Anchorage – Words with an image to provide context

Ferdinand de Saussure:

1. Signifier – Stands in for something else
2. Signified – Idea being evoked by signifier

C S Pierce:

1. Icon – A sign that looks like its object
2. Index – A sign that has a link to its object
3. Symbol – A sign that has a more random link to its object

Roland Barthes:

1. Signification – Process of the construction of meaning from the signs

2. Denotation- First level analysis (what a reader can see on the page)

3. Connotation- Meanings or associations we have with the image

4. Myth- Naturalises events turning history into nature

5. Ideology- A world view about how society should function

6. Radical- Out of the ordinary or something you wouldn’t expect 

7. Reactionary- Follows stereotypes or something you expect 

8. Syntagm – Where signs occur in sequence or parallel and operate together to create meaning

9. Paradigm – A paradigmatic relationship is one where an individual sign may be replaced by another.