Semiotics
Semiotics in all its general sense, stands for the study of role of 'signs' in our human society and how these signs are used, and actually, have been used over time, to either shape or manipulate the society we live in today. Roland Barthes, who was a French philosopher and writer, investigated the field of semiotics and wrote about what these signs actually were and how they communicated ideas to people. He firmly believed that signs that are used to communicate ideas do not just involve words, but instead cover a much broader spectrum, such as the way people carry themselves in public and the ideas the intend to project through their getup (clothes, hairstyles, body language etc.). He therefore settled on the point that signs can also be visual. This (semiotics) exactly, is the tool used by the media industry to communicate certain messages to the public in both a direct and subliminal manner. The various ways in which information is represented under semiotics can include words, images, gestures, textures, sounds etc.
Roland Barthes:
Over time certain objects or subjects have been used by the media to establish a base of meanings behind these chosen objects that have formed our society's shared culture and language. These objects themselves may not mean anything but the way we have implemented their importance and significance in our day to day lives shapes how we perceive the ideas projected by the media through these objects. These objects are called 'signifiers' and can refer to anything from an expression to an outfit. These signifiers are used in various ways to signify one or more ideas, and these ideas are referred to as the 'signified' in the field of semiotics.
Most of the times, people will all resolve to the same basic idea a sign is intended to project, just as how it is very crucial to agree to have common and proper communication within the members of the society to avoid any misunderstandings or misinterpretations of signs. But sometimes, we tend to extract different, and in some case contradictory, meanings and ideas form the same signs. Due to this reason, signs or signifiers have been separated into two domains, objective and subjective signifiers. Objective signifier are generally very obvious and direct and point to a very specific idea intended to be raised in the minds of the people. On the subjective signifiers can be any that spark your memories and make you either thing of something from your past or perhaps something within your culture or lifestyle, which may not hold true for another person from another background. In this category (subjective signifiers), the various factors affecting the type of information we receive would depend on factors such as life experiences, memories, encounters, lifestyles, education, nationality, ethnicity etc.
To be able to understand and pick out the different obvious and hidden signs within the media depends on ones understanding of the world and their intellectual capacity. Most people do not even realize the amount of signs they are exposed to in their daily lives and how these signs have an important role in shaping the minds of these people. The media takes advantage of this factor and has the power to move peoples thoughts and shape their decisions and extract intended reactions.
It is quite interesting to see how the concept semiotics is used and what it actually tells us about how the world functions, and also how we as a society are very easily manipulated. What is also interesting to note is that signs are not merely words but are a lot more diverse and seep through all parts of our lives.
To further explore the concept of semiotics, an ad for a fashion brand has been taken and has been broken down to analyze what the different signifiers are and what each of them represent both objectively and subjectively.
The brand's name is Sisley and the advert shows two young women leaning forward to a table to sniff in drugs, only here the drugs is actually a product of the brand, a white dress. The text below the brand name reads 'Fashion Junkie', referring to the lifestyle of 'junkies', people who resort to drugs to make it through the day. The very objective idea the ad is trying to project here is that these girls are addicted to fashion so much that it's almost like a drug addiction.
Moreover, the way they have done their make up and how their expressions are adds to the theme of drug addiction. They look week physically, and their expressions are projecting a state of being high under the influence of substance abuse.
The brand is trying to target a specific type of audience. The theme of the surroundings of these women suggests that they are in a nightclub and are regular partygoers. Their dark makeup also suggests that they have bought into this kind of hard and edgy lifestyle and represent themselves very strongly. They come of as young people with strong personalities, the ones you wouldn't want to get into a fight with. The brand is definitely trying to target this king of young and rugged audience and up to an extent support their lifestyle.
It is also interesting to note how the entire image, except for the white text and the white dress, is quite dim and dark. It kind of represents two extremes within one ad. Darkness or guilt with lightness or purity. It looks as though the girls are drenched in the darkness and are seeking the 'light' and the brand is project the role of this lighter side.
This example shows how semiotics is used to convey and communicate ideas in the media. it also shows that some ideas can be subjective whereas some others can be quite direct.













