Semiotics: blog tasks


Part 1) English by Tarun Thind analysis

Watch (or re-watch) the short film English by former Greenford Media student Tarun Thind and then answer the two questions below:


English from Tarun Thind writer | director on Vimeo.

1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film?
That they are not nice people as they disturb the homeless mans sleep and carry on playing the harmonica even when the homeless man tells them to stop and let him sleep. 

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?
As not everyone is the same such as young teenage people are all immature and violent as in the ending English tells his deaf friend that "everybody just thought before they spoke" and gave an example of Winston Churchill which  emphasises his maturity and how he's trying to get his point across to his friend and that sometimes we should think before we act and not just act without thinking. 

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?
Ferdinand de Saussure said that anything can be interpreted as a sign and signs are made up of two parts- the signifier (the thing that does the communication) and the signified (that which is communicated).

2) What does ‘polysemic’ mean?
Polysemic means when signs open to interpretations or more than one meaning. 

3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’?
When enough people know what a new sign is and it becomes a new norm for them. For example, a new emoji that everyone uses while texting.  

4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?
1. Hermeneutic code or 'enigma code'
2. Proairetic code or 'action code'
3. Semantic code
4. Symbolic code
5. Cultural code

5) How does the writer suggest Russian Doll (Netflix) uses narrative codes?
The writer suggests Russian Doll uses narrative codes such as enigma codes as each time Nadia comes back to life over and over again the fruits and flowers still seem to rot each time when Nadia comes back to the same day again. This creates questions (enigma codes) as to why the fruits and flowers are still carry on living life and reaching to their natural process (decaying and dying out) when Nadia still looks like the same each time she's back. 


Part 3) Icons, indexes and symbols

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

Icon: 


 
Index: 





Symbol: 



2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?
As the help us create meaning of the things we perceive. 

3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing?
As people might not have ever heard of or seen the Apple logo in there lives which could mean different meanings. For example the "Apple" Logo could suggest 'health' or 'fruit'.

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).

This advert misinterpreted the wrong meaning as the woman is handing the police officer a Pepsi drink which is therefore distracting him from doing his job and looking after the public as he is too busy focused on the drink in his hand. 

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.

 


This is a successful advert as it uses all the right meanings such as for icon the image of coke bottle which leads to the index of our names on the bottle which means it's for us which then leads to the symbol of just the word 'coke' which we all know means just refreshing and tasty. 

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