Assignment 1 : Semiotics Analysis

This is an image of billboard ads outside there. The ad is about 'Formula' toothpaste, with their headline tag ‘builds strong teeth’ and a picture of male bite the billboard. This billboard ad indicates indexes meaning which are represent by the picture itself. Picture of male bite the billboard to indicates that he has a strong tooth after using the ‘Formula’ toothpaste. Connotative meanings that can get from this image are strong. A strong tooth that can do anything without affect on it after using the toothpaste with the tagline ‘builds strong teeth’. Denotative meanings that can get from this image are which with this toothpaste; people don’t have to worry anymore about their teeth. Now they can eat what ever they like because this ‘Formula’ toothpaste with ‘builds strong teeth’ as the tagline is all they need.

According to the ad, the image shows that using toothpaste that users can test the durability of the tooth. This is described as male image in the billboard as if it were to bite the billboard itself, and this means that the toothpaste is strong and resistant brittle. This means that users themselves can understand the message conveyed by the billboard. Therefore, the symbol shown in this image could be associated with the purpose to be served. Even if there is a variety of purposes refurbished but it will come back to the same meaning. Although many semiotic codes can be seen as interpretative codes, this can be seen as forming one major group of codes, alongside social codes and textual codes. In a broader sense all semiotic codes are 'social codes.

Regarding social code, face a man found in this ad which is look like Asian and ages around within 30. Textual codes means that various expressions can be translated when you see a design. For example, when the man in the image bite the billboard shows the strength and confidence of product sold. The images shown are also clear and plus another product motto of 'build strong teeth' under the picture of toothpaste. From what is seen in the interpretative codes, this ad shows the strength of the product and thus attracts consumers to buy the product.

Week 6: Film Appreciation: Thin Red Line

For this week. The Thin Red Line is a 1998 American war film which tells a fictional story of United States forces during the Battle of Mount Austen in World War II. The Thin Red Line by director Terrence Malik . In accordance to the title of assumptions and contributions of semiotics, this movie is a rich "source",so to speak, of said content.The story of Thin Red Line is about a group of men that was brought in as aid soldiers to join the marine unit that was in desperate need of help, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer and
eventually build essential discoveries about themselves throughout the vicious World War II battle of Guadalcanal. In this movie, The first 10 minutes of the movie, there is more happening in this opening sequence than just an introduction to the film’s characters and storyline, We get a taste of how the rest of the film will flow. The Thin Red Line is essentially a character study of the way war affects a company of men who have never stepped foot in a war zone before. The opening scene is a dreamy representation of the calm before the storm. The opening scene shows the love and peace such as love from a mother to her child, love between two lovers, a love between one and your God. We can know that by seeing through the activities, attires (props) and human behaviors from the beginning in the first 10minutes of the film as the starting point throughout the whole story line. The reason I would say I get to identify on who is the main character is just by his extraordinary and outstanding looks.

One of the relationship between the characters and the scene that I have observed would definitely relate to the relationship between Colonel Tall, played by Nick Nolte, and Captain Starros, participated by Elias Koteas. This relationship focus on the question of loyalty, a clash between loyalty to the orders of one's superiors and loyalty to the men beneath one's command. In those moments lies the subtlety of a man questioning the ugliness of war and the ideals he has been brought up to embrace. There is a vast difference between the way he communicates with the locals and the way the other privates and their superiors interact with each other. Where he is in that one moment is a picture of serenity,of a simple paradise without the harshness of modern day life,what more in a discipline and rigid military regime. From the voice over , we can get know that the poem is about wars

Week 5 Assignment : Reading characters and the stereotypes they represent and resist can spark critical thinking

This week we learn about to be media literate is to understand how to read and use media, to practice critical media literacy is to recognize how media function to shape society and identity, and to be aware of how media operate in daily life and in the social and political scene.

We will consider how film might be used to support critical media literacy and traditional literacies in the Semiotic classroom.

Film : Titanic (1997)

Who is Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson?

Rose is a 17-year-old girl, originally from Philadelphia, who is forced into an engagement to 30-year-old Caledon Hockley so she and her mother, Ruth, can maintain their high-class status after her father's death had left the family debt-ridden. Rose boards the RMS Titanic with Cal and Ruth, as a first-class passenger, and meets Jack. She has got a lot to give, and she's got a very open heart. And she wants to explore and adventure the world, but she [feels] that's not going to happen. And Jack, he's an artist who is able to have his heart soar. Within the film, Jack is portrayed as a penniless Wisconsin man who has toured various parts of the world, primarily Paris. He wins two tickets onto the RMS Titanic in a poker game and travels as a third-class passenger with his friend Fabrizio. He is attracted to Rose at first sight and meets her when she attempts to throw herself off the stern of the ship. This enables him to mix with the first-class passengers for a night.

What stereotypes does he/she represent?

She leads as a first class lady. And he, a young artist from third class.

Is he/she good or bad?

Both are a good person, based on their characters.

What complexities does he/she have, if any?

Back up statements with evidence from the film.

Week 4 Assignment : Connotations and Myth

What is connotation and myth ? How semiotic systems effect human behaviour?

Connotation is the term Barthes uses to describe one of the three ways in which signs work in the second order of signification. It describes the interaction that occurs when the sign meets the feelings or emotions of the users and the values of their culture.

The principle of myth is that it transforms history into nature. Signs and codes are generated by myths and in turn serve to maintain them. Myths can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths help us to make sense of our experiences within a culture(Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 185-6).They express and serve to organize shared ways of conceptualizing something within a culture.

How semiotic systems in advertising effect us ? Advertisers attempt to attach products to cultural myth within our society. By using semiotic analysis we are able to identify the attempts to link to these myths. It helps us understand how products are linked to these cultural myths and enables us to more easily identify the advertisers target market. It gives viewers another tool in avoiding consumerism by seeing that in advertising " the hard sell" has been replaced by a more defuse range of functions.

For example :

This is an advertisement for Extreme Polo Sport.

This is a fragrance which is designed to be strongly reflective of masculinity. Although this advert appears to be simple, its connotative meanings allow our interpretation of it to be a pragmatic one, in that its signifiers have particular relevance with regards to the context of the advert. One such group of signifiers is the advertisement's colours, it consists of a bold, aggressive colour scheme of black) white, red and dark blue; and together with the silvery, metallic appearance of the product, this colour scheme serves as a significant group of signifiers which attribute the brand with the same sense of masculinity which is projected by the subject. Hence, the role and importance of this colour scheme in shows that these colours are part of an organised system of signifiers who form significant cultural and aesthetic codes.The aesthetic code which implies that red, black and silver, are masculine colours.

Week 3 Assignment - Meaning of Index, Icon and Symbol

Index means its connected with the object in a very real way. For example a sun-dial, or clock indicates the time of day, and nothing else. An index is like a fragment torn away from the object. Anything that focuses the attention is an indexer sign. Photographs are iconic and indexical especially when they are candid. For this reason photographs and video are often used as ‘evidence’. Photographs and film footage may also be symbolic when it is posed, rehearsed, and standing for something else.

An ‘icon’ represents mainly by it similarity. Icons have qualities that resemble the object they signify. A picture is actually a symbol, not a duplicate of what it represents, no matter how realistically it has been rendered. Because pictures resemble what they represent only in some respects, you will rarely mistake a picture for the real thing.

In symbol meaning, many theorists may say that language is a symbolic sign system. But Saussure prefers not to refer to language as ‘symbols’. He feels other things like the scales of justice are symbols, because the signifier has some connection with the signified. It is not wholly arbitrary. Some others argue that symbols become so only because we associate that idea with them constantly.

Example:-

Second Week Assignment (Part 2) : What is media?

Media like newspaper, magazines ,television, cinema or radio are obviously communications media and it make available a wide range of messages and meanings. Since media in this broad sense are so important to the experience of living, it is useful to understanding how those media are meaningful to us.

Recently, one of the most powerful and influential ways of thinking about media has been known as semiotics, which means 'sign'. Semiotics can be used in the study of advertising, magazines, newspaper, television, cinema, and interactive media. Semiotics takes the way that language works as the model for all other media of communication, all other sign systems.

Second Week Assignment (Part 1) : What is text?

Semiotics can be applied to anything which can be seen as signifying something - in other words, to everything which has meaning within a culture. Even within the context of the mass media you can apply semiotic analysis to any media texts (including television and radio programmes, films, cartoons, newspaper and magazine articles, posters and other ads) and to the practices involved in producing and interpreting such texts.

A 'text' (such as a printed advertisement, an animated cartoon or a radio news bulletin) is in a complex sign containing other signs. Initial analytical task is to identify the signs within the text and the codes within which these signs have meaning (for example 'textual codes' such as camerawork or 'social codes' such as body language). Within these codes you need to identify paradigm sets (such as shot size: long shot, mid shot, close up). You also need to identify the structural relationships between the various signifies.

We can think of language as a system of signs, which we can study syn chronically :)