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Semiotics
The saturation of images in our society through the media has been the cause of much critical comment within philosophy, politics and sociology. This examination of the image has been ongoing since the early twentieth century, as the consideration of how images are used has developed into a distinct discipline. Images provide a means of communication and representation, the study of these messages is labelled semiology. This subject can perhaps be better described, though far more loosely, as the examination of signs, the way signs are produced, disseminated and consumed.
'A science that studies the life of signs within society is conceivable...I shall call it semiology (it will)...show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them' (Saussure 1974: 16).
The study of signs is particularly important in the consideration of the generation of 'media memories' as it is through the structuring, presence and absence of certain signs that a perception of the past within the public sphere is generated by and through the media (Bignell 2003: 7). Signs situate their audience in particular modes of appreciation and understanding, just as audiences themselves comprehend signs in particular ways. The study of signs is revealing as the ways in which signs are used, accepted and rejected is indicative of the tastes and desires of wider society.
The origins of semiology are located with the work of the French linguistic Ferdinand de Saussure, his study, Course in General Linguistics (1974), set the agenda for the ways in which signs are examined. Saussure analysed the sign into its two basic components: a sound component which he named the signifier, and a conceptual component, which he called the signified. This conceptual component, the signified, is not a material object, but the thought, the idea of an object, it is what is called to mind when an individual hears or uses the appropriate signifier. Therefore the idea of a cat is called to mind as a signified when the word 'cat' as a signifier is used. The signifier therefore constitutes the material aspect of language. In the case of the spoken language a signifier is any meaningful sound which is made, in the case of the written language a signifier is any meaningful mark written down, in the case of the media a signifier is any image which is relayed to the audience. Signifiers and signifieds can be separated in this way by semiologists; in the encounter of signs in everyday life however they constitute a whole: a single sign.
The study of semiotics was also greatly advanced by the American philosopher Charles Pierce, who analysed the notion of signs to reveal underlying components.
'A sign or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something, its object. It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea, which I have sometimes called the ground of representamen' (Pierce 1955: 99).
These theories are important because they reveal the way in which signs communicate ideas, attitudes and beliefs to us. In the context of television, film, newspapers and other forms of media, semiology explains the way in which images are used to represent and relay information to the audience. This of course is reliant on the assumption that the audience possesses the necessary knowledge and appreciation, societal conditioning if you will, to decipher these signs (Burn and Parker 2003: 11). Therefore the signs which are viewed in the media by the public can be constructed to form certain meanings, meanings which appear perhaps unconnected to the signs themselves. The philosopher Roland Barthes considered this aspect in his study of the images relayed to the public through the media. Barthes proposed that the use of signs in society was a means of expressing a particular way of normalising the world in line with a bourgeoisie perspective. This normalisation was termed a 'myth', an indication of both the fabricated nature of the message and the seductive power it holds over others.
'Myth does not deny things, on the contrary, its function is to talk about them; simply, it purified them, it makes them innocent, it gives them a natural and eternal justification, it gives them a clarity which is not that of explanation but that of a statement of fact...it is natural and goes without saying: I am reassured' (Barthes 1973: 143).
Signs therefore, as relayed through the media, are able to communicate social and political messages. Barthes for instance considered the image from a magazine cover of a black man in French military uniform giving a salute. Barthes examined how the image communicated to its audience a message of a liberal, understanding France, of inclusiveness and acceptance. Far from the image of a black Frenchman conveying an image of a black Frenchman, the image itself relays a variety of messages to its audience. The image acts to defuse any tensions about inequality in society by emphasising that anyone regardless of ethnicity can be proud of the nation. In a similar way when images are viewed in newspapers, films or television programmes the audience consumes and connects images to aspects of society. Signs therefore are a point of domination as well as definition, as the production, dissemination and consumption of signs in society acts to shape and inform the structure of understanding. With specific reference to the media the manner in which signs are presented to the public, i.e. the camera angle, the lighting, the background are all within the remit of the semiologist (Danesi 1994: 23). The signs relayed through the media are a very important area of study as they can form the basis of public perceptions and understanding. Within a television programme for example, the viewer is exposed to a number of signs which they are required to decipher and recognize (Lacey 1998: 35). The nature of this recognition is based upon the previous scenes in the programme, the manner in which that scene is portrayed and the wider understanding of that scene within society.
Semiology therefore provides the interpreter with a means of accessing how signs are deployed and understood within the media. It enables the interpretation of the underlying meanings within media output and how the audience accepts, rejects or redefines those meanings.
Bibliography
- Barthes, R. (1973) Mythologies. London. Paladin.
- Bignell, J. (2003) Media Semiotics: an introduction. Manchester. Manchester University Press.
- Burn, A. and Parker, R. (2003) Analysing Media Texts. London. Paladin.
- Danesi, M. (1994) Messages and Meanings: an introduction to semiotics. Toronto. Canadian Scholars Press.
- Lacey, N. (1998) Image and Representation: key concepts in media studies. Houndmills. Macmillan.
- Peirce, C.S. (1955) Philosophical Writings of Pierce. Editor by J. Bachler. New York. Dover Publications
- Saussure, F. de (1974) General Course in Linguistics. New York. Philosophical Library.
