Semiotics of mass media

In today’s fast-paced world, media texts such as advertisements aim to

convey meaning with a single glance. Through using clever tools

such as semiology, rhetorical, genre and narratology this can be achieved, meaning that adverts on billboards or in magazines can successfully get their message

across with no more than a fleeting look. It is the selection and

combination of different signs that allow us to convey meaning through

print advertisement and the connotations that these signs have

and what we determine from different types of signs, through

the process of signification. These tools allow brands, products and often celebrities to combine, to anchor a product and create a

naturalised myth of the product such as ‘this perfume makes you beautiful’, to sell it to the

consumerist world. As we are now in an age of sophisticated

advertising, there are no long written messages on the majority of

print advertisements.

O If people respond to media without question, without systematic logic they will be influenced to act according to the values and purposes of those who control the media. Communication is persistent and pervasive. Every waking moment of contemporary life seems to be impacted by experiences that require the interpretation of sign taken to be messages from environment other people, or media. And while we are busy interpreting necessary information the process of communication and the media are in the backround. Those processes have significant effects on the interpretation of meanings and the messages convey , even when people pay no attention to them. Media have an enormous influence on what we know and believe in contemporary Western cultures and increasingly around the world. While we are busy taking care of necessities of our lives we are immersed in a mediated world. Media production and distribution are expensive and media messages are constructed by individuals and team of people with intention of sending messages that influence public opinion and individual actions. People use media for their own purposes and generally don’t think critically about persuasive nature of repetitive images and ideas that become normal because they are familiar. By delivering information and entertainment the media make people familiar with certain lifestyles products , and social norms that influence the everyday values of individuals who collectively impact the ethos of society.

O When media dominate a society the most powerful effect is not necessarily controlling what audiences think, but restricting what they think about. If democracy is constrained by what media prescribe creativity and independent thinking are curtailed, everyone is indentified as consumers who relinquish their responsibilities to act as independent members of a democratic society and freedom becomes limited to choosing what to buy. Media generally represent persuasive propositions to willing audiences that with knowledge and preparation, can independently inquire and determine the limits and potential of understanding. Media representations are experienced as immediate, while the actual objects and events represented necessarily remote from direct experience. The concept of interpretant is central to understanding how media are interpreted in a variety of individual context. The interpretant is a sign formed in the mind of interpreter in response to an original sign

OAs a general rule, media themselves are only messengers, the media provide a context for systematic delivery that is secondary to the messages that appear to make sense on their own. The nature or media affects the message because each medium embodies a distinct symbolic system of expression. A symbol is a type of sign that must be learned from other meaning of which can be shared within cultural groups. Thus media always function at a minimum two levels- the meaning of the message, itself and the symbolic way the media represent it. Media representations are generally not one dimensional and can express a general meaning while also suggesting multiple secondary characteristic and specific applications.

Media circulate idea, images and stories that entertain, argue, negotiate, persuade, and construct values and beliefs that are reflected in real-life practices. Advertising target particular groups of people through messages that have less to do with the product that with promoting lifestyle decisions of consumers. Humans are innately social creatures, and we identify with others like ourselves. In a

world so dominated by mass communication, media play a significant role In shaping identities, beliefs and practices. Even those who don’t intentionally consume media are affected through the circulation of ideas and social discourse. Media circulate

stories and information, even in the of entertainment, about real and imagined people and

event

Media provide symbols such as words and images that stand

for ideas and objects, construction. The essences of

messages are represented within codes that construct the shared understandings of cultural systems. Identify

how communication take place. That is, what signs are perceived as significant,

word, sounds, images, object or mental image, an idea or concept, a sense intuition or feeling. In other words,

media only appear to represent reality effectively using technologies to encrypt

additional layers upon established representational systems that are based on elaborate, shared sets of

assumptions.

O In advertising the image is perfect “re-presentation” of life. According to Barthes (1965) “In advertising the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional, the signified of advertising message are formed a priori (A priori knowledge or justification is independent of experience) by certain attributes of the product and these signifieds have to transmit as clearly as possible. If the image contains signs, we can be sure that in advertising these signs are full formed with a view to the optimum reading, the advertising image is frank, or at least emphatic ( Barthes, 1999:33)

Advertisements have their own particular language. Their

goal is to communicate information about the company and the image they want to

create to the audience. Words are most often used in

advertisements to reaffirm the impression that companies want to audience to feel. Words are

frequently used to tie the image created in

advertisements to the product they are trying to sell.

Language is used in advertisements to import idea images into the mind, it is these images that are later remembered whilst the words

themselves are often forgotten. The language of images is the predominant

language of advertisers as the structure of magazine

advertisements confirms.

In advertising the message is put into words and images by a creative

team, approved by a purchaser, distributed through a medium like radio, television or magazines, and it is

decoded by the targeted audience. The messages

of advertisements have to use appropriate signs and symbols to stimulate the individuals perceptual system into action. Magazines are also a

valuable medium and their ability to reach many pre-selected and

targeted audiences.

O Significant images an important part of advertising. Nike with their “ Just do it” campaign has provided the intended audience young athletic men and women with rewarding praise for the physically fit and consistent inspiration for the unfit to chuck their lethargy, to stop the tendency to accept the societal norm, and just do it. This imagery is heightened through excellent photography the use of celebrity, and dramatic situations. It is a type of advertising, rather literally, image advertising( Sutherland, 1993: 8)

O Apple has a series of TV commercials creating a positive representation of their loyal product users. Physical appearance, personality and style are used to distinguish those preferring the Apple Macintosh operating system from those using Microsoft operating systems. The apple guy slim and fashionable and has no easy-going, confident personality, while PC guy is “geeky” overweight and not fashionable.

O Visa had an advertising slogan. A commercial depicts a colorful, carnival atmosphere at a shopping venue where everyone using plastic to make purchase. The message is designed to communicate that cash and check are out or date and inefficient and actually disrupt and otherwise happy community or credit card consumers.

poster for the exhibition ‘Sensation’ held at the Royal Academy of Arts, ‘

The electric iron stands opposite the tongue in a

similar shaped fashion but the iron connotes feelings of technology, temperature and danger. The iron has been chosen in the design to be

directly inhuman, not sensual but connotes potential danger. The iron as we know exceeds a

high temperature and is possible to damage our senses

and cause pain.

Sensation’ the type that has been used as main focus is

simply ‘Sensation’. This is the signifier and signifies to us as the meaning of ‘perception associated with stimulation of a sense organ’, the denotation of the type includes the choice of Sans Serif and the colour of white to represent clean-cut and elegant. At the same time the font chosen is to once

again mimic the shape of tongue and iron, and is pointed, this is made clear with the letter A situated in the middle, top of

the iron, outlined in red.

There are four areas of text in this image. The first, and most likely to be overlooked, is the text on the can itself “diet pepsi | 0 cal carb sug”.O While the word diet literally connotes just the

kind of food a person or animal eats, it has come to denote the act of reducing – attempting to restrict caloric intake with the goal of reducing one’s weight

O “the new skinny can.” While this text connotes that the can the beverage comes in is indeed skinnier and taller than other similar beverage cans, the word “skinny” also denotes the similar goal of reduction and attention to caloric intact which for many the end result being to become (or stay) “skinny.”

O The next observable text on the ad is “Sofia Vergara for Diet Pepsi.” Sofia Vergara is a contemporarily famous actress known for her overall attractive appearance. Her association with this product reinforces the earlier stated connection between its use and the results of attractiveness offered. As an actress known for her shapely figure which is often the focus of media attention, the ad reinforces the idea that diet pepsi is a drink for those who are concerned with achieving and maintaining a slim figure themselves.

O And then finally there is a fourth area of text inviting viewers to connect through social media – “facebook.com/diet pepsi.” This is arguably the most direct text in the image with only a knowledge of the social media outlet as well as a the format of a web url (notice that the address does not include an “http” or “www” before facebook) to understand what is being relayed

Surrounded with symbols, images and various signs, human being always strived

to signify them and utilized for communication. The meaning comes out of an interaction between the message and its reader(audience). While handling a text, one must consider not only its components

but also the relation between those components, all the impressions as well. When the images urge us to react, we are aware of its effect upon us, which is resulted from myths, ideologies and connotations embedded in the images.

O . Only through a sophisticated analysis, the hidden meaning under the obvious one could be formed. Critical thinking must be applied to breaking the habit of accepting media representation as reality. While there are many approaches to media literacy, semiotics provides a clear foundation got the analysis of mass communication and the production of meaning. More than understanding the intended meanings available to the intelligent interpreter semiotics provides a systematic method for understanding how signs work to produce meanings.