Semiotics
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?
The meanings that the audiences are encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film is that these two men are presented as stereotypical young London men. This is presented by their clothing behaviour, urban setting and their body language.
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 emphasise de Saussure's belief that signs are polysemic open to interpretation as it makes the audience rethink what they have seen earlier in the film and the hidden meaning that was placed throughout 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?
Signifier-physical form of the sign.
Signified-the meaning that the signifier represents.
2) What does ‘polysemy’ mean?
Polysemy means a sign having more than one meaning.
3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’?
Barthes means that meanings created by society can become so familiar that we started seeing them as a norm.
4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?
Enigma code, Action code, Semantic code, Symbolic code, Cultural 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 :A photograph, map
Index: Footprints
Symbol: Red traffic light-meaning stop
2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?
Icons and indexes are so important in media texts as they help audiences immediately recognize and understand visual and audio content.
3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing?
Global brands try to avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing due to symbols having different meanings either positive or negative. If the symbols were to be negative, this could cause the consumer to avoid purchasing the product affecting the company's income.
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).
An example of a media text where the producer has accidentally communicated the wrong meaning using icons, indexes or symbols could be seen from Sony's 2006 billboard campaign. This advert features an emotionless white woman gripping a black woman from the lower jaw. This causes offence towards black people as the advert is making white people look more superior.
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.
An example of a media text that has successfully used icons and indexes to create a message that can be understood across the world is fast food advertisements such as kit kat. This advert portrays the icon through a direct visual likeness of the object itself (kit kat), this influences the consumer to purchase the product.
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