Semiotics: blog tasks

 Part 1: English by Tarun Thind analysis

1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film? From the opening of the film, the audience are encouraged to assume that the 2 teenagers act like the 'stereotypical teenager' as they are called "hoodlums" which clearly emphasises the idea that they are rebellious and not good for the community.

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 end  of the film enhances de Saussure's belief that signs are polysemic because from the beginning of the film, the audience realises that there were clear signs demonstrating the fact that the 2 teenagers were deaf but chose to interpret those signs in a way that feeds into the stereotypical ideology of teenagers which effectively confirms de Saussure's belief that signs are polysemic.

Part 2: Media Magazine theory drop - Semiotics 

1) What did Ferdinand de Saussure suggest are the two parts that make up a sign? Ferdinand de Sassure suggested that signs are made up of 'the signifier' and 'the signified'.

2) What does ‘polysemy’ mean? Polysemy is the idea that a thing can be interpreted in multiple ways.

3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’? The idea that constructed meanings can come to seem self-evident, achieving the status of a myth trough a process of naturalisation.

4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes? Symbolic code, connotative code, cultural code, proairetic code, hermeneutic code.

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

Part 3: Icons, indexes and symbols

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

Icon:Flag,tree

Index: Smoke, dark clouds

Symbol: red (stop), green (go)

2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts? Icons and indexes are so important because they allow producers to communicate to their audience.

3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing? Brands may try to avoid using symbols in their advertising and marketing because people can associate those symbols with a different meaning than its intended meaning.

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).Pepsi ad.The woman hands a pepsi to a police officer who was controlling the protest crowd which stopped the protest. The media product failed because Pepsi mistook social justice movements for opportunities to sell drinks and was seen as disrespectful too the people who sacrificed and suffered for the sake of protest and change.

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.Nike advert. This is because the 'tick' shape may reflect the idea of someone completing a worthy task and proceeding to check it off the list, like how the athlete demonstrates in the poster will go on to tick off his training session for that day.