MIGRAIN: Semiotics blog tasks
Part 1
1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film?
They subvert teenage and young adults stereotypes and that no matter what their looks will never identify them or their personality from the outside.
2) How does the end of the film emphasise de Saussure’s belief that signs are polysemic – open to interpretation or more than one meaning?
Their conversation was mature and moreover despite the old man not being good towards them but they didn't act the same towards him but instead helped him.
Part 2) Media Magazine theory drop: Semiotics
1) What did Ferdinand de Saussure suggest are the two parts that make up a sign?
Ferdinand de Saussure said that anything can be interpreted as a sign and signs are made up of two parts – the signifier and the signified.
2) What does ‘polysemy’ mean?
Media texts being interpreted in multiple, and sometimes contradictory ways by their audiences.
(signifier can have multiple signified meanings)
3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’?
This means that certain meanings are created or brought about in society and, over time, once enough people know about these newly constructed meanings, they are ‘naturalised’, accepted and agreed upon.
4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?
Hermeneutic(enigma) code, proairetic (action) code, cultural code, semantic code, and symbolic code.
5) How does the writer suggest Russian Doll (Netflix) uses narrative codes?
- When you open Russian matryoshka dolls, they too get smaller and smaller. So the title acts as a symbolic code here. The symbol of the Russian doll.
- At some point, fairly early on, the camera pans past and lingers on a close up of a bowl of fruit that is entirely rotten – only the most observant viewer (usually the student or teacher of film and media) sees this. This is an example of an enigma code.
Part 3) Icons, indexes and symbols
1) Find two examples for each:
Icon:
Index:
Symbol:
2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?
They allow producers to communicate with their audience.
3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing?
Cultural stereotypes can be offensive and may hinder a brand's global appeal
4) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) where the producer has accidentally communicated the wrong meaning using icons, indexes or symbols. Why did the media product fail?
At the beginning of April 2017, Pepsi debuted an ad depicting Kendall Jenner in the middle of a photoshoot when she spots a protest happening in the middle of the street. She then walks up to a police officer manning the protest crowd and hands him a Pepsi, therefore stopping protests—and socioeconomic conflict, racial tension, gender inequality, and many more.
Pepsi mistook social justice movements for opportunities to sell soda, which is very disrespectful to the people who have suffered and sacrificed for the sake of protest and change.
5) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) that successfully uses icons or indexes to create a message that can be easily understood across the world.
Nike came up with its tagline in the 1980s to motivate athletes. This four-word motivational ad campaign became the most popular and timeless brand by raising $8 billion in revenue for Nike in just a decade. Nike knew its customer base and understood the problem athletes face in mastering their mindset first to move and train their bodies. It clicks. Just do it, even if you don’t want to. It addresses a concern; we know you don’t want to wake up early in the morning but ‘’Just do it.’’
1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film?
They subvert teenage and young adults stereotypes and that no matter what their looks will never identify them or their personality from the outside.
2) How does the end of the film emphasise de Saussure’s belief that signs are polysemic – open to interpretation or more than one meaning?
Their conversation was mature and moreover despite the old man not being good towards them but they didn't act the same towards him but instead helped him.
Part 2) Media Magazine theory drop: Semiotics
1) What did Ferdinand de Saussure suggest are the two parts that make up a sign?
Ferdinand de Saussure said that anything can be interpreted as a sign and signs are made up of two parts – the signifier and the signified.
2) What does ‘polysemy’ mean?
Media texts being interpreted in multiple, and sometimes contradictory ways by their audiences.
(signifier can have multiple signified meanings)
3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’?
This means that certain meanings are created or brought about in society and, over time, once enough people know about these newly constructed meanings, they are ‘naturalised’, accepted and agreed upon.
4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?
Hermeneutic(enigma) code, proairetic (action) code, cultural code, semantic code, and symbolic code.
5) How does the writer suggest Russian Doll (Netflix) uses narrative codes?
- When you open Russian matryoshka dolls, they too get smaller and smaller. So the title acts as a symbolic code here. The symbol of the Russian doll.
- At some point, fairly early on, the camera pans past and lingers on a close up of a bowl of fruit that is entirely rotten – only the most observant viewer (usually the student or teacher of film and media) sees this. This is an example of an enigma code.
Part 3) Icons, indexes and symbols
1) Find two examples for each:
Icon:
Index:
Symbol:
2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?
They allow producers to communicate with their audience.
3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing?
Cultural stereotypes can be offensive and may hinder a brand's global appeal
4) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) where the producer has accidentally communicated the wrong meaning using icons, indexes or symbols. Why did the media product fail?
At the beginning of April 2017, Pepsi debuted an ad depicting Kendall Jenner in the middle of a photoshoot when she spots a protest happening in the middle of the street. She then walks up to a police officer manning the protest crowd and hands him a Pepsi, therefore stopping protests—and socioeconomic conflict, racial tension, gender inequality, and many more.
Pepsi mistook social justice movements for opportunities to sell soda, which is very disrespectful to the people who have suffered and sacrificed for the sake of protest and change.
5) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) that successfully uses icons or indexes to create a message that can be easily understood across the world.
Nike came up with its tagline in the 1980s to motivate athletes. This four-word motivational ad campaign became the most popular and timeless brand by raising $8 billion in revenue for Nike in just a decade. Nike knew its customer base and understood the problem athletes face in mastering their mindset first to move and train their bodies. It clicks. Just do it, even if you don’t want to. It addresses a concern; we know you don’t want to wake up early in the morning but ‘’Just do it.’’
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