1. A sign is the image/code/physical part that stands for a thing
or idea 2. The thing that is the sign the thing that means something is called the SIGNIFIER. What it means is called the SIGNIFIED. 3. Signs have literal meaning (denotation) and value added meanings things we associate with them, as individuals or as groups (connotation). 4. The meanings signs have are shared by groups of people. 5. The understanding of the non-literal meanings of signs by a group is especially governed by factors such as: Age Religion Race Country of residence Cultural Upbringing Schooling Class Media Experiences Our hobbies and habits 6. Meaning has to be shared by a group for the code to work. 7. Codes have different numbers of people who are fluent in that code. 8. Codes are used everyday and include language (spoken), written language, moving images (TV, Film), behaviour at mealtimes, marriages etc to name a few. These are often called Discourse in media studies. 9. Signs can relate directly to what they represent (i.e. look like what they stand for) (called iconic) or they can be an arbitrary shape or sound that a group agrees to and not look anything like the thing they represent (called symbolic). Signs that give or have meaning based on a relationship between the two are called indexical (such as using smoke on a warning sign to indicate fire). Other Factors in Media Studies related to semiotics 1. Things are not usually black and white they can be on a graded scale (called a Cline) think about grades or degrees of heat/hotness. 2. Users of codes (such as language or film) make choices relating to what happens NEXT (called a syntagm). This is like a sentence or the running order of scenes in a film; its about choosing along the linear. 3. Those same users also make choices at each point from a list of options (called a paradigm), making a choice each time from a list. Remember the example of; The cat A The mat 4. People
sat Kitten was laid
on the mat laid undera upon by a
rug moggy
associate ideas and things together and this is used to make
meaning in media. Its called contiguity (contiguous). 5. People often use the characteristics of one thing to stand for the whole of it so Big Ben for the Houses of Parliament and/or for the UK Government, likewise the White House is used to stand for the presidential administration or The Eiffel Tower for Paris. These meanings are called metonymous (metonyms). 6. Peoples shared experiences, especially in media texts, allow for media text producers to refer to other media texts in their work. This is called Intertextuality The Simpsons often does this when they do The Simpsons versions of, for example, horror films. 7. Theorists argue a lot about the extra meanings (value added connotations). 8. The audience or receivers of texts are often assumed to be/react or read a text in a similar way. This similarity is called homogenous (homogeneity). However, as you surely already know, audiences are NOT the same and read things in their own ways. They can be very diverse. Diversity in the audience in media studies is called heterogeneity (heterogeneous) 9. There are different types of signs as alluded to above: a. ICON looks very like the thing represented (e.g. Photo) b. INDEX suggests something related to the image (e.g. Smoke to indicate fire) c. SYMBOL has agreed shared meaning(s) not related to what the sign itself looks like and those meanings can be quite deep 10.Signs that have more than one meaning are said to be POLYSEMIC. 11.Because signs can have more than one meaning, the way they are grouped or placed together is important adding words for example ANCHORS meaning. 12.Images are placed together carefully in groups to help make the audience make sense of what theyre seeing it anchors the meaning. 13.Meaning can change over time. Some signs can no longer be read by younger readers or perhaps those outside of a group. 14.Film is a language of signs we read subconsciously. There are general rules that filmmakers follow (CONVENTIONS). Sometime they break these rules to disrupt how audiences read them. 15.Images and sequences are always created with a purpose all the elements are there for a reason and by the choice of the creator. This makes the text what we call MOTIVATED. That is to say that there is a reason, or a motive, behind everything in a text. 16.Signs work together in different ways they can be used harmoniously in COMBINATION or they can be placed in different ways or unusual combinations to create new meanings this is often called JUXTAPOSITION.