Week 6, Semiotics and Structuralism Flashcards
Structuralism
Ferdinand de Saussure
Structure makes meanings possible.
What is the underlying structure and how does it make particular meanings possible?
What are the two components of sign?
Signifier and the signified
Signifier
Form of the sign, has to mean something.
Ex. The literal word for “cat”.
Signified
Meaning.
Ex. if the signifier is cat then the signified is a four legged, feline creature we often keep as a house pet and that Kara would like to adopt.
The relationship between the signifier and the signified is
arbitrary, but culturally agreed upon.
Language can be divided into
langue and parole.
Langue
Structure.
System of language, rules and conventions that organize language in institution.
The rules of chess.
Parole
Performance.
Individual utterance/use of language.
The game of chess itself.
Semiotics
The study of signs and the meanings they produce.
Roland Barthes.
Roland Barthes applied semiotics to a range of media texts in order to make visible
“what goes without saying”, or, the ideological meanings embedded within media images.
Roland Barthes treated popular culture objects and media texts as
signs that can be read for meaning.
Saussure’s model only provides ___ signification and Barthes argues that a ___ signification is needed.
Saussure’s model only provides primary signification and Barthes argues a secondary signification is needed.
Primary signification
Denotation
Secondary signification
Connotation
Social knowledge is necessary.
Where ideological meanings are formed.
Barthe’s concept of Myth
To understand how meanings are produced by popular culture.
Ideology is understood as a body of ideas and practices, which, defend the prevailing structures of society.
Myth is produced in connotation, in Barthe’s second level of signifier-signified model.
Polysemic
Signs have the potential to signal multiple meanings.
What is the sign/denotation in the Paris Match image?
Soldier, child, young black boy wearing a hat and saluting.
What is the connotation/secondary meaning in the Paris Match image?
Colonization is good for African people.
French Imperialism.
Propaganda.
What does semiotics do for us in critical media studies?
Provides a set of methods to analyze visual media culture with.
Allows us to understand how ideologies are produced and circulated via media texts.
Process we often go through unconsciously to make meaning of media.
Romm tells us that the Trump Time’s cover is a
statement with layers of meaning.
