3.

A Short Semiotic Analysis

Fig.0: Magritte R., La Trahison des images (1928-29)

The time has come, in my analysis of publicity, to refer to semiotics. Semiotics has always been known as the study of signs, although I must clarify that semiotics is especially the study of why specific signs have specific meanings, rather than what meaning itself is. There are several theories examining the sign and its definition, led by researchers such as Saussure, Pierce and Barthes.
The artist René Magritte himself has exploited the semantics and the concept of "signifier" even for artistic aims, distinguishing the representation of an object from the real one [Fig.0].

The analysis of a sign starts from the formulation of terms which are the outcome of linguistic studies, but that can be extended to all types of signs. I will list a short glossary of the tools needed for such an analysis:

a) Signifier: it is the form in which the sign shows itself. Indeed, the sign could be expressed through a word, an image, a sound, etc.
b) Signified: it is the concept linked to the signifier, so the image in the receptor’s mind.
c) Denotation: it is a sort of ‘scientific’ meaning of the sign; in the case of a word it is the dictionary’s definition.
d) Connotation: it is a list of figurative meanings attributed to the sign; for example, a metaphor is a figure of speech based on connotation.
e) Myth: defined by Barthes, it is a deep-rooted shared connotation. For example: it is a strong myth that fire is connected to war and water to purity.

Fig.1

Fig.2

Fig.4

Fig.3

Let’s look at the above campaign advertising, which can be found either on a bus, on the street or in magazines. Omitting the brand, let’s look straight at the product: it is a fabric softener.
In terms of denotation we can say that the images show animals which become plushes by diving into the water, all set on a white background. Therefore, the elements are the water, the colour white, the animals and the plushes. All these denotations share a lot of connotations linked to strong myths. These are designed to enhance the product’s characteristics. Wild animals are connected to something rough and dirt to be washed in the water, which, in its own turn, is connected to purity and cleaning. Such animals become stuffed animals once they are in the water, another strong myth: in fact the roughness becomes softness, fragrancy, something linked to childhood.

This is just an example which can be extended to all kinds of signs and advertising messages. It is interesting how the semiotic work is part of an encoding process which takes advantage of the conventions and myths and how the advertising exploits our passive consciousness to sell a product. Overall, my advice is not to be too passive in front of an image or a video, but to ask yourself about the reason why about a particular choice can make you understand a lot about how the ‘subliminal’ mediated world can work.

References


Barthes, R. [1972] 2009. Mythologies. Trans. Lavers, A. London : Vintage.

Blakesley D. and Brook C. (2001) Introduction: Notes on Visual Rhetoric. Enculturation. [Online] Available at: http://enculturation.net/3_2/introduction3.html

Chandler, D. 2007. Semiotics: the basics. Available at: Hoboken : Taylor & Francis.

Hall, S. 1980. 'Encoding/Decoding'. In: Stuart Hall, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe and Paul Tillis, eds. Culture, Media, Language. London: Hutchison, pp. 128-38. Available at: https://spstudentenhancement.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/stuart-hall-1980.pdf

Figure 1. Lenor Fabric softener: Elefant. (2012) Grey. [Advertisement] At: http://www.adeevee.com/2012/01/lenor-fabric-softener-gorilla-bear-crocodile-elephant-print/

Figure 2. Lenor Fabric softener: Crocodile. (2012) Grey. [Advertisement] At: http://www.adeevee.com/2012/01/lenor-fabric-softener-gorilla-bear-crocodile-elephant-print/

Figure 3. Lenor Fabric softener: Gorilla. (2012) Grey. [Advertisement] At: http://www.adeevee.com/2012/01/lenor-fabric-softener-gorilla-bear-crocodile-elephant-print/

Figure 4. Lenor Fabric softener: Bear. (2012) Grey. [Advertisement] At: http://www.adeevee.com/2012/01/lenor-fabric-softener-gorilla-bear-crocodile-elephant-print/

2.

What’s on TV?

We are used to conceiving a communicative structure in a linear way: a message goes from a sender to a recipient. However, this is not the only communicative theory which interests the researchers. 

Stuart Hall, cultural theorist and sociologist, in 1973 noticed that the audience is not only a receptor. This is the encoding/decoding theory, which provides two key-moments:  a creation of meaning that the “encoder” wants to express (encoding) and a reception of the message that changes depending on the audience’s feedback (decoding). 

A deeper analysis shows, however, that this loop has many other components that can be difficult to understand. I will try to take a quite popular TV show (which is the means used by Hall) as an example.

This week the Brit Awards -one of the most famous nights of pop-music awards- took place. As an annual meeting of all teenagers and not only, the Brit Awards turned out to be a great musical event, welcoming famous artists from the UK and elsewhere. I am sure that even those who have never seen the Brit Awards before know what I am talking about. This show has a great influence on the audience and for such a reason could be read in many ways.

From: http://www.capitalfm.com/brits/news/2016-date-venue-hosts/

Based on the knowledge of the concepts on which the encoding process works, we can say that:
a) The ‘Frameworks of Knowledge’ used by the encoder are that the awards represent every singer’s aspiration (as the Oscar are for actors).
b) The ‘Relations of production’, also known as the context and the market promotion, are in this case not just the UK market, but the worldwide one (think of the importance of English music today!)
c) The 'Technical Infrastructures' represent how the message is technically transmitted (video editing, stage, performances, music etc...).

From: http://www.nme.com/photos/30-bizarre-facts-about-the-brit-awards/165151

From these components, the audience creates its position according to three points:
a) Dominant: It may be the idea that the award is the highest success for a British singer (I know about girls crying for the One Direction’s win).
b) Negotiated: It could be: ' ok, I do not care about my favourite singer’s winning, I just care about their performance!'
c) Oppositional: It may be the idea that music needs not to be watched or that everybody is different: why would I abide by others judgment? Or even the opposition to every kind of music commercialization.

This is a quite schematic analysis of how it is possible to read a particular message from different points of view. Nevertheless, what is interesting is the fact of being able to make the viewer an integral part of a circuit, going beyond the idea of a passive spectator, becoming a key figure in the encoding and decoding process. I believe that nowadays it is very important to foreground the critical role of the viewer, because he himself is the cause and purpose of the media trial.

References

Becker A, 2010, Encoding and Decoding in FOX’s American Idol. [video online] Available on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqg6tVWEbkY

Brit Awards Ltd 2016, Brit Awards 2016. Avaible on: http://www.brits.co.uk/

De Graft R, 2014, Introduction to Communication Science 4-8: Encoding, Decoding and the Construction of Meaning. [video online] Available on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEnOn7LfAXk

Hall, S. 1980. 'Encoding/Decoding'. In: Stuart Hall, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe and Paul Tillis, eds. Culture, Media, Language. London: Hutchison, pp. 128-38. Available at: https://spstudentenhancement.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/stuart-hall-1980.pdf

1.

Can a Violent Video Game Create a Violent Behaviour?

From: http://www.techspot.com/article/629-do-video-games-make-you-violent/

It is my opinion that video games play an important role in children's behaviour. This is because in the act of playing the individual becomes a virtual character, and they feel like they enter a virtual world and are active in what they do. A lot of video games have been said to ‘cause' unwanted behaviours. Maybe the most popular is GTA Vice City, a game that is based on criminal acts, where the gamer plays as a character who is free to perform killings and robberies on the streets of the city. 

Video gaming is the kind of media that represents a meeting point between the effect model and the uses and gratification model (i.e., two points of view to research and study the audience's behaviours in front of a particular media). The two models present the following features: 

a) effect model: children and adults can be influenced passively in what they do, so that gaming could induce violent behaviour. The contents, in this model, are "injected" into the mind of the viewer; 

b) uses and gratification model: children and adults may want to escape a kind of reality which makes them bored, so they are active and feel free to choose what they want to do in their lives. 

The meeting point could be the use of a medium that has been chosen for gratification but  during the fruition passes certain content to the user .

Columbine High school
From: http://columbine.wikia.com/wiki/Columbine_High_School

One of the most important and serious criminal reports is the case of the Columbine High School in 1999, where two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot the crowd of students and professors who were in the building. This case is important because in some countries it brought up the issue concerning the laws controlling the distribution of video games. Furthermore, it seems that during the shooting the two assailants were calling each other through fictitious names from Doom, a first-person shooter video game. Moreover, Eric Harris seems to have founded a website with a completely customised version of Doom, where two gamers could virtually kill others who could not react. Leaving aside the paradox that in 2005 came out just a video game inspired by this tragic event, video gaming is not the only one to blame. 

by Jimmi Turrell

I believe that people willingly make a choice the moment they decide to use certain products: people do not only become violent when they start playing video games, but in most cases they are already violent to start with, and video gaming only increases their natural disposition. These facts show that there is the need, today more than ever, to educate people on the use of media, because putting an age limit to video games seems not to be enough. Children need to be followed by parents and teachers who should become their guide in order to make them become adults, and people who are critical of the media all around.

References:

Anderson C. A., and Dill E. K. 2000, ‘Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and Life’, Journal of Personality and Social Psycology, 78(4), pp.772. Available at: https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/psyifp/aeechterhoff/wintersemester2011-12/seminarthemenfelderdersozialpsychologie/12_anderson_dill_videogames-aggressivethoughts_jpsp2000.pdf

Branston, G., and Stafford, R. 2010. The media student’s book. NY: Routledge. Chapter 14: From audience to users.

Gauntlett, D. 2005. Moving experiences: media effects and beyond. Eastleigh, UK : John Libbey Pub. Chapter 1.

2001, ‘Columbine families sue computer game makers - UK - May 2001’, BBC News. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1295920.stm