| Sign | Stands in for something else |
| Code | Symbolic tools used to create meaning |
| Convention | Accepted ways of using media |
| Dominant signifier | The main representative |
| Anchorage | Words with an image to provide context |
| Signifier | Stands in for something else |
| Signified | Idea being evoked by signifier |
| Icon | A sign that looks like its object |
| Index | A sign that has a link to its object |
| Symbol | A sign that has a more random link to its object Roland Barthes: |
| Signification | Structural levels of signification, meaning or representation |
| Denotation | The most basic or literal meaning of a sign |
| Connotation | The secondary, cultural meanings of signs or signifying signs signs that are used as signifiers for a secondary meaning |
| Myth | The most obvious level of signification, but distorts meaning by validating arbitrary cultural assumptions in a way similar to the denotative sign |
| Ideology | codes that reinforce or are congruent with structures of power |
| Radical | Something that challenges dominant ideas |
| Reactionary | Something that confirms dominant ideas |
