MCH1025:

Introduction to
Scholarly Practice
Week 6: 03.11.2021: Semiotics and
Cultural History
Nick Jensen
n.jensen2@newcastle.ac.uk
 Session Aims & Objectives
Aim: Appreciate how culture affects semiotics.
 Discuss a range of examples drawing on the
diversity of terms associated with semiotics.

Note: Generally, Semiology is French for Semiotics.

 Chandler Article
Pick out one sentence from the Chandler article and explain why you found it illuminating.

How might you use this illuminating point in future research?

Illuminating: Helping to clarify or explain something.

 Investing and divesting
signs
 Signs are only signs when they are invested
with meaning (Chandler, 2017, p. 11)
 Identify something that when divested of
meaning loses all its properties/value as a sign?
What are the cultural
differences of the
colour ‘red’?
Connotations in Advertising
What are the similarities and differences
between these two signs?
Thinking Points
& Sources
What is meant by the term arbitrary?
 Cultural History
• Go to page 273 in Shingler’s article and consult the block
quotation and the little bit of text before (volunteer to read it).
Now: someone identify the ideology that is operating here.
• Do some live historical research using anything you like from
the Media History Digital Library at
https://mediahistoryproject.org.