Codes, Signs & Conventions

 In this blog, I decided to cover the theory of media language, known as semiology. Terminology in media can be quite boring, considering all of the famous theorists that defined certain ideas that are pretty similar to each other and to some it creates confusion and gets all tangled up in your head. To get straight to the point, semiotics is the study of different signs and what do they mean and convey in society. Semiotics is technically all around you, words can be signs, your address can be a sign, the type of bag you wear can be a sign and even traffic signs can be signs. This all sums up the idea that each of these signs conveys a certain meaning to society, used in all media types.

THEORISTS

Many researchers and authors of semiotics, such as R. Barthes, C. Pierce, F. Saussure and many more, have agreed on the simple definition of semiology that I've mentioned above. 

Each of the theorists had their own philosophy and idea of how to define semiotics in the film and print industry; so let's take a look at the idea of each of the 3 main ones mentioned above.

Roland Barthes

He defined semiology as a study of signs and that a sign consists of a signifier (word, image, sound...) and signified ( its meaning). This is connected to the relationship between denotation (the literal meaning of the sign) and connotation (any association with a sign). 

So, for example, down below we can see a picture of a red apple. This picture denotes to us that this is a fruit that we eat, this is also considered a signifier because it is the literal explanation of what we see in the picture. Furthermore, this red apple connotates to us that this might mean the symbol of health or can remind us of poison or sin from Snowhite.

Moreover, let's apply this knowledge to a bigger picture with many more signs. The picture down below denotes to us a girl, with baggy pants and a band T-shirt. This collection of signs can connotate a rebel or even a goth that this character might be. Also, our character is holding a tobacco pipe which indicates how old fashioned and reckless our character might be.

                                                                                                                                                              

Barthes also had a more complex theory of semiotics. He found modern science of semiology, applying methods of myths that he saw all around him: fashion, art, literature, photography. According to Roland, anything in culture can be a sign and send a specific message. This means that everything can be a myth; it conveys some meaning or message to us. Let's take red wine as an example. It is a French national drink and is viewed as life-giving and very refreshing in cold weather. The red wine is associated with all the myths: becoming warm, summer and all sparkling things. As Barthes said 'Myth is a type of speech'.

Charles Peirce

He technically agreed with Barthes but was adding more ideas on the original idea. Peirce's sign theory is an account of signification, representation, reference and meaning. He categorized signs into 3 subcategories: icon, index and symbol. The icon is a visual representation of what the advertiser is trying to advertise to the audience. An index is evidence that is being represented in Media. And the symbol is self-explanatory, it represents certain advertisements. However, it doesn't have any relations with signifier or signified, it just has to be learned (e.g. male/female)

Ferdinand De Saussure

Saussure interpreted semiology as another communication option and agreed on the idea of what signified and signifier represent. He added 2 new terms called paradigm and syntagm. 

Syntagm is a single word or element of design so, when altered, can change the overall meaning. A paradigm is a group of related ideas where all members are very different. For example, the sentence 'the cow jumped over the moon' indicates the syntagmatic meaning because all of the signs form the one meaning, but if we replace 'the cow' with a different word in a column we get a different meaning which is paradigmatic.

Applying it in the analysis

 So, these theories can be applied everywhere, but most commonly they have been used in film, advertising and magazine cover analysis. The important thing is to look at everything in the context, or when analysing the film we can apply it to mise-en-scene or characters in the frame. For instance, the silence of the lambs movie promotional poster shows a woman with a pale face and a moth covering her mouth. In this example, the red eyes can connotate that this character might be dangerous, but her white pale face might show us her innocence, also the moth is a fragile animal which in this case signifies that she is quiet and shy.

Furthermore, the lower case red title also indicates danger, as the sentence is referenced to the killing and eating of people (Hannibal Lector). The black background makes her face contrast from the rest of the poster, which again connotates to us that she might be the main character in the film.

This analysis can, of course, go much further, but in this example, I only wanted to show you how codes and convections are used in a context.