Paper 1: Analysis Terminology Flashcards
Signifiers
Signifiers are symbols, logos, or icons that communicate a message/idea. The message they communicate is what is signified
For example: the communist logo might signify simply just the values of the communist party, collectivism and socialism.
Icon
An image may be an icon, meaning it resembles the thing it represents.
For example, a heart may direct you to the cardiology department of a hospital.
Logo
A logo is a design used to represent an organisation so that the company or organization becomes associated with the design.
Composition
A term taken from visual arts, which refers to the author’s arrangement of objects in relation to each other.
Negative space
Negative space is space within an image which has not been illustrated
Rule of thirds
The rules of thirds tells us that viewers often look to the places where these three columns and three rows intersect/meet.
Visual narrative
Story depicted or told through the use of signifiers that signify past to current events that hypothetically could have taken place before and during the capturing of the image.
For example, a bruised eye suggests a fistfight.
Anchoring
Anchoring is the process of making an image meaningful by adding words such as caption, or the process of making words meaningful by adding images such as an illustration.
Body language
Body language may be considered as a kind of stylistic device or structural feature of a visual text in images with people.
Things to pay attention to include facial expressions, gaze, exposure of skin, and posture.
Political cartoons
Cartoons but especially political cartoons often reflect public opinion and aim to comment on public figures and politics. They combine drawings and words into a single frame to succintly criticise policies or people in a humorous way.
Caricature
Cartoonists often exaggerate the facial features of political figures as a comment on the person’s character
Topical
What makes a political cartoon political is that it is topical. It comments critically on a current affair, a much discussed political figure or a recent event. Political cartoons tend to comment on news.
Labelling and captions
Cartoons often use labels and captions in order to make their message and any use of symbolism clear.
In a caption, words appear in a box separated from the rest of the panel or page, usually to give voice to a narrator, but sometimes used for the characters’ thoughts or dialogue. In some comics, where speech balloons are not used, the captions provide the reader with text about what is happening in the images
Irony
Many political cartoons highlight the irony of a particular situation. Irony is when one means the opposite of what one says. Situational irony occurs when one’s actions have the opposite of the intended effect.
Panel
At first glance you will notice that comics are divided into multiple frames or panels. These panels help build a sense of time and space. Some panels do not even have a frame.
