Semiotics - Roland Barthes Flashcards
(40 cards)
How is communication possible through media?
With the use of signs and sign systems (codes), whether they are letters on a page, sounds or visual codes.
We can understand visual images because we learn to decode them.
Semiology or semiotics is the study of these signs and systems of signs.
Define the term semiotics.
Is the study of signs and how they communicate meaning theorised by Roland Barthes.
Define the term sign.
It’s an image, object, gesture or action used to convey information or meaning. It’s anything that can be used to represent something else.
Define the term signifier.
It’s a sign’s physical form (such as sound, printed word or image) as distinct from its meaning.
Define the term signified.
It’s the meaning or idea expressed by a sign, as distinct from the physical form in which it’s expressed.
Define the term dominant signifier.
It’s the dominant ideology of the text or the strongest message.
Define the term icon.
Is a sign that resembles something, such as photographs of people. An icon can also be illustrative or diagrammatic, for example, a no-smoking sign.
Iconic sign - Looks like what it represents.
Define the term code.
Is a set of conventions or sub-codes currently in use to communicate meaning.
Define the term technical codes.
Are the physical processes that have been involved within the construction of the text. These can include: The camera angles selected. The mise en scene chosen. The editing choices made.
Define the term mise en scene.
Is the stage design and arrangement of actors in scenes for a theatre or film production.
The key elements of Mise En Scène are:
Costume
Lighting & colour - Low key lighting - creates a sharp contrast of light and dark areas. High key lighting - filtered light used appears normal/ realistic. Creates mood and atmosphere.
Action/ Actor - Facial expression and body language
Make-up & Hair
Props
Setting
Define the term verbal codes.
Is what communicate meaning directly to the audience through either:
Through words e.g. on a print product.
Through sound e.g. an audio/visual product.
Define the term repetition codes.
The use of codes can help to define the genre, style or purpose of a product.
The repetition of codes can lead to an establishment of conventions for that product.
What does identification of codes and conventions of products do?
It helps to give meaning to the product, as well as making it easier for an audience to identify.
For example, a magazine usually has a masthead at the top of the front cover, with cover lines surrounding the main image.
As this is repeated on most magazine covers, the consumer is then able to identify a product as a magazine.
Identify Barthes five different kinds of semiotic elements that are common to all texts.
Hermeneutic/ Enigma codes Proaireatic/ Action codes Symbolic codes Semantic codes Cultural/ Referencial codes
Define the term symbolic codes.
An image that has come to represent something else. For example, a cross on a building represents the fact that it’s a church.
List the symbolic codes of hoodies
Rebels Criminal youth (hood to conceal identities)
Define the term semantic codes.
Are parts of a media product that have hidden meanings there are connotations to them that audience should understand. For example, in a horror movie, there are typically lots of the colour reds and blacks which the audience understands that those colours signify blood, danger, darkness, mystery, etc.
Therefore red and black have become the semantic codes of horror.
Define the term action codes.
Are elements of media products that signify that something is going to happen as a result. For example, a moment in a film where a person is pulling a gun out of their pocket would be a proairetic code signifying to the audience they’re going to shoot somebody.
Define the term enigma codes.
Enigma = Mystery
It’s any mysterious part of a text that will engage an audience in some way, hook them in and make them want to read the full article, advert or watch the full advert or film.
Define the term cultural codes.
Are parts of a media product that individuals only understand if they’re part of that particular culture, e.g country, nationality, ethnicity, age, gender or historical time period.
Define the term symbol.
A mark, character, image or sign used as a conventional representation of an object, function or process.
A material object that represents or stands for an abstract idea.
Define the term anchorage
This is what’s used to describe how the combination of elements within a sign fit together and fix the meaning. It’s the way different media language elements combine to help fix the meaning that a producer wants to convey to the audience.
Define the term ideology.
Are people’s assumptions about what signs are, what functions signs serve, and what consequences they might produce.
Ideas and beliefs.
Define the term paradigm.
It’s when signs can replace each other as a result changing the meaning with the substitution.
It doesn’t have a meaning by itself but take on meaning when combined with more complex patterns of signs called syntagms.
Paradigmatic relationships are about substitution.
For example “The cow jumped over the moon”, you could replace cow with another word to form a different sentence with a different meaning such as “The fish jumped over the moon.”
