Semiotics is the study of meaning. Semiotic analysis or deconstruction is where a student breaks down a media product to work out it's deeper meaning.
One issue with this is that it's very possible to just 'go off on one' and have a bit of a rant. We all have opinions on the deeper meaning of things, and online forums are absolutely stuffed with fans theorising over the meanings of their favorite products.
What Barthes and other semioticians attempted to introduce to the discipline was a unifying structure and language of analysis. This enabled semioticians to precisely pull meaning from media products. The language is often complex-sounding and rather fearsome. Yet ultimately, semiotics is about how meaning is created. It just uses the right words.
COOL FACT - Roland Barthes wasn't the only semiotician. Far from it! Other named theorists we study in media studies who absolutely rely on and expand upon semiotics include Levi-Strauss, Baudrillard and Hall. Therefore, an excellent analysis will use the language of many of these theorists, spliced together.
Below is a selection of words related to semiotics and post-structuralist deconstruction that will help you make your answers more precise and confident to boot.
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| Semiotic analysis allows us to make sense of the world around us. Even mundane situations can be filled with colour, lexis, fonts, costume codes and layouts that construct a vast array of meanings |
Semiotic analysis keywords
This is a list in progress. If you spot any 'big media words' that you love, then let us know!
Connote - a suggestion of the deeper meaning
Signify - again a suggestion of a deeper meaning, a level below the sign
Constructs - to build meaning
Designates - to assign meaning
Anchor - to 'weigh down' meaning, or to 'fix' meaning. A perfect example is a caption
Myth - a recurring story that keeps arising in societal contexts, for example 'the American dream' or 'the structures of democracy'
Mytheme - a single element of a myth, for example 'st George slays the dragon' or 'Aladdin finds the magic lamp' or 'losing everything before fortunes change'
Encode - to build or 'put meaning in to something'
Narrative codes - anything related to telling or furthering a story. For example an intertitle with the time and date functions as a narrative code, clearly indicating the passage of time to the audience. A fade to black or other transition can do the same thing
Visual codes - anything the audience can see that creates meaning. This is very broad, but a red dress may encode a sense of glamour and romance
Technical code - the ways in which a media product is constructed that construct meaning. For example, the use of rapid fire editing connotes a sense of urgency and hostility
Gesture code - things subjects do with their bodies or faces that construct meaning. Therefore, the gesture code of a beckoning finger may directly address the audience, and position them discretely within the world of the narrative
Genre code - the elements that construct genre. For example, knives, masks and blood are genre codes of the slasher film. This term is broadly synonymous with genre conventions
Symbolic codes - Something that suggests a deeper meaning. A middle-aged character situated in the MES of a powerful sport's car may symbolically represent a mid-life crisis
Proairetic code - Something that suggests that something is going to happen. For example, a shock zoom could suggest a sudden and surprising event
Hermenutic code - Something that asks a question or constructs a mystery. For example the MES of a knife sticking out of a corpse's back will encourage the audience to decode the mystery as to who killed them...
Cultural code - where a specific culture is made reference to in a media product. For example Top Boy constructs a hyperreal representation of black, urban criminal culture, and Silent Witness constructs a hyperreal representation of white, middle class law-enforcement culture. The audience's knowledge and expectations of these will affect their interpretation
Referential codes/intertextuality - where one media product makes reference to another media product. This can be for reasons of comedy and satire. Also it can simply be a narrative shortcut. For example, the huge wooden gates in Jurassic Park are a clear reference to King Kong, which also proairetically suggests the awful things that are about to happen...
Naturalisation - where a code is repeated over time until it becomes seen as being 'normal'. For example the idea that people with a facial scar are evil, that pretty people are the main character, that rain is depressing and that a big pair of glasses makes someone a massive nerd
Cultivated -
Message reduction -
Implosion -
Paradigmatic feature - an element that suggests genre. Another way of saying 'genre convention', but fancy
Structure - How a media product is put together
Fetishisation - where a person or object is presented in an obsessive manner. Fetishisation is often sexual, but it does not have to be. For example, in Mad Max Fury Road, water is fetishised and used as a system of control. In The Wolf Of Wall Street, money is fetishised to a significant level, and is often conflated with sex...
Modes of address - how a media product 'talks' to it's audience. For example, using smaller font and fewer pictures in a magazine will address the audience in a sophisticated manner
Diegetically situated - diegesis is the world of the narrative. So if something is diegetically situated, it means it exists in the world of the narrative. Examples include gunshot sound effects, props, costumes... anything the characters within the narrative could see or hear
Positioning - how the audience are 'placed' by the producer. For example, romantic comedies will often position the female middle-aged target audience with the female main character
Alignment - where the audience are positioned in such a way as to agree with the ideology of a media product. This is a complex technique that involves positioning, anchorage and so on.
Deconstruct - to break down a media product to work out it's meaning