Andrei Allen UCA Broadcast Media Blog

For contextual studies we were set a task to read an extract from 'Codes' taken from the website 'Semiotics for Beginners' by Daniel Chandler and from reading that extract bring in an example for discussion such as a film still, fashion item, object, photograph, still from TV, animation still, or theatrical production.

So for this extract I decided to research further on semiotics and understand what it is, and funnily enough, I already knew what it was, all of us know what it is but we just take it for granted and do not know the technical term for what it is that we understand.

How you ask?

Basically, when we see/smell/touch/taste/hear something what does it mean? Through what eye are you viewing it? What is the characteristic of the thing/eyes that is viewing it? Culture/society/class system, these are some of the things that affect how you perceive something.

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, but to be more specific, semiotics is the cultural understanding of those signs and symbols to whoever is subjective to it at that moment in time. I.E. Take figure 1 for example

Someone from a ‘modern’ civilization would understand that this item is a road sign, even if they cant understand what it represents, they would be culturally aware of what it is. But someone from say a culture that has avoided modern civilization like the Korowai tribe would look at this sign and not have the slightest clue as to what it is or represents.

Another example is an ice cream van/truck, from young most of us know that when you hear the music box sound playing out loud, nearby, an ice cream van is close. A fire bell ringing, you know straight away that a fire is happening. These signs are habits formed by our brains that we’re accustomed to as a culture from the society that we’re living in because we’ve been taught these things throughout our life.

How semiotics is applied within media is, when your creating something, you bare in mind the audience that your marketing your idea towards. You would employ certain semiotic codes in your media piece in order to make sure that your audience can understand/relate to what it is that’s happening or being presented in front of them. 

Take Eastenders for example, one way how they employ semiotics into there show is through the set design of the Queen Victoria (The Queen Vic), it has an old Victorian style exterior design with a picture of Queen Victoria on the outside of it, also the name of the pub is of a former Queen (Queen Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) of Great Britain, inside the pub, it has a modern Victorian design with pub chairs and tables which is an accustom to most British pubs, with this design the audience can atomically establish that it’s a British pub.

For my extract what I presented in class was a selection of photos and also some sentences/play on words. Below is what i chose to present for discussion.

What do you see? Do you see an orange; or the colour orange?

What do you see? A Rose; or a flower that has rose?

What do you see? A dog, a Chein(french for dog), or a Perro(spanish for dog)?

Earlier when i mentioned what eye do you see 'it' though, this is a prime example, different cultures will give different names to the same meaning, because it is the systematic code established by these cultures in which these cultures would use to communicate amongst one-another.

What do you see? A pen; or an expensive asset? 

Someone from say a ‘Lower class’ would not have knowledge of such product where it is not marketed towards them, so up on viewing this or being given it they would not know the true value of this product because it is market towards a niche upper class market.

What do you see? A watch; or an expensive asset? Because this is such a wide known product, both lower and higher class would be familiarised it.  Up on viewing or being given this they would know that it is an expensive item and only a person with a high wage bracket could afford such a product. This watch symbolises wealth and importance where not your everyday person could afford such an item.

For the play on words I chose:

For the play on words, to prevent us from having an ambiguous understanding, a technique called anchoring would be used; in order to establish to us what it is that we’re hearing or viewing. How? For those play on words, it would be supported with an image that would clarify to us what it is i.e. Sally would be holding an orange, or Martin would be getting out of a coffin. Another example of anchoring is in news and sports events. In the news, anchoring is used via the news reporter explaining what it is that your viewing and also a lower third caption to further signify to us what it is that’s happening.

 

For the picture of the Rose, in Semiotics terms, it would be labelled a Signifier (a noun), Signified (Verb/adverb) and also a referent, as in what is the real rose? What do we think when we see or hear the word? What is the context it’s being used in? Again, to stop us from having this ambiguous thought anchoring would be used.

Conclusion

So yea..... From all of this study on semiotics, its definitely helped me to look at things properly in more detail, and i'm definitely applying it to my work from now on. Subconsciously i believe that i was already doing this in my Story-telling unit with the research that i conducted, however, know with this newfound knowledge i will look at things in specific detail to make sure that its fully portraying the idea i'm trying to create i.e. for Phillip where his a school kid who always gets bullied, in my opening scene, i could present him having a split lip or bruised eye, to signify to the audience that he may have been assaulted prior to what they're seeing. I could also give them all (Phillip and the bullies) the same ties to represent that they're part of the same school; to prevent the audience from having an ambiguous thought as to where the other students are from.