Semiotics

 Part 1: English by Tarun Thind analysis

Watch (or re-watch) the short film English by former Greenford Media student Tarun Thind and then answer the two questions below:

English from Tarun Thind writer | director on Vimeo.

1) What meanings are the audience encouraged to take about the two main characters from the opening of the film?

They are encouraged to think that the main characters are hooligans and bad people however by the middle/end of the film we find out they're deaf which then subverts that idea of them being hooligans as they help the homeless man and give him fresh bananas.

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?

Different people may have different thoughts which emphasises his idea of polysemic as poly means more than one. The fact that we find out they are deaf creates a second meaning and belief in the film which also suggests that de Saussure's belief is right.

Part 2: Media Magazine theory drop - Semiotics 

Greenford Media department has a subscription to Media Magazine - a brilliant magazine designed exclusively for A Level Media students and published four times a year. We strongly recommend you read it regularly and also set plenty of work for the course based on the articles inside. You can find our Media Magazine archive here and for this task need to go to MM68 (page 24) to read the introduction to Semiotics. Once you've read it, answer the following questions:

1) What did Ferdinand de Saussure suggest are the two parts that make up a sign?
Signifier and signified

2) What does ‘polysemy’ mean?

the coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase.

3) What does Barthes mean when he suggests signs can become ‘naturalised’?

This means that certain meanings, like the phallic emoji of the previous paragraph, 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. Just like the scenario with the disruptive girl walking into high school. Making meaning is a process.

4) What are Barthes’ 5 narrative codes?
-enigma code

-action code

-semantic code

-symbolic code

-cultural code

5) How does the writer suggest Russian Doll (Netflix) uses narrative codes?

-So the title acts as a symbolic code here. The symbol of the Russian doll helps us (eventually) to make sense of the narrative.

-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 examples for each: icon, index and symbol. Provide images or links.

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?
Different countries/cultures may have different meanings of symbols and some may be offensive in different cultures.

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? (This web feature on bad ads and marketing fails provides some compelling examples).