Charles Sanders Peirce

• Charles S Peirce was born

September 10th 1839. He studied at
Harvard University, and got a
degree in Chemistry. However he
never took his academic career
further because he was a possible
manic depressive and had a series
of scandals around his life. He had
no children but followed a career in
Maths, Philosophy and was a
logician.
 Piece’s Argument
• Every thought is a sign and every act or
“
reasoning consists of the interpretation of
signs”
• “Signs function as mediators between the
external world of objects and the internal
world or ideas”
• “Semiosis is the process of co-operation
between signs, their objects and their
interpretants”
• “Every thought is a sign and every act or
reasoning consists of the interpretation of
signs” Smartly dressed for a job?
sign

Intelligent?

= cute

Smartly dressed Going to a

for court? Wedding?
Or Funeral?
• “Signs function as mediators between the
external world of objects and the internal
world or ideas”

= sign = stop at the lights

Signs relate the object

of the red high heel
with the idea of a
certain type of woman.
• “Semiosis is the process of co-operation
between signs, their objects and their
interpretants”
End of War or conflict

• Objects + signs + interpretants = Semiosis

Drugs for medical
reasons?
Addiction?
 Relevance to Media
• Film directors and Magazine editors use the link
between sign, object and interpreter to create
messages to the audience. How the audience
read the signs of certain models/actors, forms
their idea of the product, model or character and
will either make the audience feel sympathy or
desire
• E.g darker colours of costume to represent evil,
and brighter colour costume to represent good. Or
if the editor of a magazine wish to show that the
model is fun and bubbly, certain props and lighting
will be used to that personality trait.
How cultural messages change
signs
Past Present

A successful man in the However, presently a successful

80’s was known to have man will be known to have a flash
an high education to car or to have a beautiful wife
become successful with money.

Society changes the way media present success and

other messages to fit with the times and new meanings.