Semiotics: blog tasks

 Part one: 

1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film? Rude boys that are probably in a gang. Because of the outfits and hood up all the time. As well as the occasional threatening to stab someone when protecting his friend/ each other.

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?  It shows that there is different point of views to everything. The fact that the boys turn out to be deaf shows the audience that they weren’t trying to be rude and from their point of view they were wrongly getting attacked by grown adults. But from the stranger point of views they were rude kids that were disturbing them.

Part 2: Media Magazine theory drop - Semiotics 


1) What did Ferdinand de Saussure suggest are the two parts that make up a sign?
        Signifier & signified
2) What does ‘polysemy’ mean?
         More than one meaning
3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’?
         The meaning the signs portray can become widely accepted and the primary meaning of the sign
4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?
         Enigma, action, semantic, symbolic, cultural codes
5) How does the writer suggest Russian Doll (Netflix) uses narrative? So the title acts as a symbolic code.The symbol of the Russian doll allows us 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: Picture of a Cat, Picture of a car

Index: Paw print, Tyre tracks

Symbol: "cat", "car"

2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?
It gives us meaning and interpretation on the media text shown.
3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing?
They could be possibly trying to aim for a mainstream or global audience. As well as possibly trying to avoid any conflict through the media.

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 advert failed because it made it seem racist rather than an advertisement for the product
 
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.