Semiotics blog task

 Part 1- Video

1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film?

The audience is encouraged to think that the two main characters are just two teenagers who aren't talkative.

2) How does the end of the film emphasise de Saussure’s belief that signs are polysemic – open to interpretation or more than one meaning?

The audience assumed that there was nothing unique about the two characters just that they didn't talk often. This would foreshadow the fact that they were both mute by the end of the film.

Part 2: Media Magazine theory drop - Semiotics 

Greenford Media department has a subscription to Media Magazine - a brilliant magazine designed exclusively for A Level Media students and published four times a year. We strongly recommend you read it regularly and also set plenty of work for the course based on the articles inside. You can find our Media Magazine archive here and for this task need to go to MM68 (page 24) to read the introduction to Semiotics. Once you've read it, answer the following questions:

1) What did Ferdinand de Saussure suggest are the two parts that make up a sign?

The signifier and the signified

2) What does ‘polysemy’ mean?

When a word or phrase has multiple related meanings

3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’?

He means that over time certain meanings will be accepted and agreed upon

4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?

. Enigma codes

. Action codes

. Semantic codes

. Symbolic codes

. Cultural codes

5) How does the writer suggest Russian Doll (Netflix) uses narrative codes?

"Every day they die and their lives are reset to a particular moment the day before (similar to Groundhog Day). As they relive their last day on earth around 15 or 20 times over, things (fish, people, furniture) start disappearing. Each time their lives reset, or the universe in which they are moving reopens, it seems to shrink. When you open Russian matryoshka dolls, they too get smaller and smaller. So the title acts as a symbolic code here. The symbol of the Russian doll helps us (eventually) to make sense of the narrative."

Part 3: Icons, indexes and symbols

1) Find two examples for each: icon, index and symbol. Provide images or links.

Icon:

1) Searching, research, internet

2) Location

Index:

1) Skull

2) Smoke

Symbol:

1) Peace

2) Infinity

2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?

They create immediate real-world connections which allow audiences to decode meaning

3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing?

Customers may not understand or misinterpret what the brand is trying to sell or imply.

4) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) where the producer has accidentally communicated the wrong meaning using icons, indexes or symbols. Why did the media product fail? (This web feature on bad ads and marketing fails provides some compelling examples).

Burger King UK began an International Women’s Day Twitter thread with four words: "Women belong in the kitchen.". The following posts explained that women held only a small share of professional chef positions and introduced a scholarship program for female Burger King employees. The intended message was that more women should have opportunities to build culinary careers. Most people encountered the first post without the explanation. The sexist phrase attracted more attention than the scholarship program it was supposed to introduce. Burger King initially defended the campaign, then deleted the post and apologized. This media text failed because the campaign depended on the audience seeing every part of a social media thread in the intended order.

5) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) that successfully uses icons or indexes to create a message that can be easily understood across the world.

The KitKat bar chard advert:

.  Icons: The visual drawings or shapes of the chocolate fingers look exactly like real-life Kit Kat sticks.

. Indexes: The varying lengths of the chocolate sticks arranged in a bar chart act as an index of data or statistics, showing a logical relationship between the physical size of the candy and the encoded marketing message.