Please work through every task in this post. If done correctly it should take no more than 90 minutes. Complete all work in a PowerPoint presentation if possible.
Task one - semiotics
Read through the following information, complete the tasks and make notes.
Key theory 1 - Roland Barthes - Semiotics
In a nutshell, semiotics is the study of meaning. It is the idea that everything we look at in media studies (and in the world at large) has a deeper meaning.
To explore this idea, copy the following images in to your notes and come up with the first five 'meanings' of each image that come in to your head.
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Where does the meaning come from? Roland Barthes argued that there is a complex relation between the following concepts:
Sign - Anything that can have meaning (for example trees, those big or small things that stand in woods and fields)
Signifier - The thing that creates meaning (for example the actual word 'tree'. Try saying it 100 time in a row. It will lose all meaning. But why did it have meaning in the first place?)
Signified – the meaning that’s created (the green, leafy thing that popped in to your head when you read the word 'tree)
Task two - advert analysis
Click on the link below, and select three different advertisements. Preferably ones with completely different audiences (so perhaps one that targets women, one that targets men, and one that targets a different kind of man...)
The click the link for the toolkit for textual analysis below. Use these words, and suggest what meanings they create.
Analyse these adverts. Pick out every possible meaning. As long as what you are saying makes sense, then put it down in your notes.
Some questions you may wish to ask...
- What lifestyle is being sold to the audience?
- Does the advert show men or women in a complex or straightforward way?
- What colours are used and what do they mean?