A Semiotic Approach on How Meaning Can Be Created in an Audience

A Semiotic Approach on How Meaning brook Be Created In An Audience humanity intellectual and complaisant life is based on the production, use, and exchange of signs (Danesi, 2002) As Danesi (2002) states, signs are an underlying part of society from watching television, listening to music, reading, writing or talking, we are engaged in sign based behaviour. This engagement with signs is cognise as the study of semiotics.Dating back to 460-377BC, with the founder of Western medical science, Hippocrates, coining the term, then known as semeiotics, he described signs consisting of three dimensions the physical dimension, known as the signifier, the referent, or signified, and the signification (Danesi, 2002). These dimensions only have signification when it has someone to mean to (Williamson, 1978). In the 20th century, semiotic theory was developed by a group of semioticians, linguists, psychologists and cultural theorists, based on the saussurean-Piercean paradigm (Danesi, 2002) .First introduced to the public in the 1950s by Roland Barthes, to describe our mediated culture, semiotics is essential when creating an advertisement. Among other things, semiotics plays a signifi trickt role in engaging the intended audience- the buyer. Whether it is the elderly, teens, children, men or women, the military position of colours, text, images and other signs, play a let out role in the success of the advertisement (Scott, 1994).By taking a semiotic approach, this essay impart demonstrate how meaning can be haved in an audience, by the analysis of two advertisements, and discussing how codes and context of use are central in the anchoring of meaning. First introduced by Roland Barthes (1977), the notion of anchorage, discusses the linguistic essentials that can help anchor, or constrain, how a referee interprets an image to fix the floating chain of signifieds (Barthes, 1977). The advertisements chosen are from differing and contrasting clips the first from ico nic fashion time Vogue and the other from a mens magazine, Mens Health.These differing genres have been chosen to illustrate how contexts and codes within specific friendly relations, groups, classes, institutions, structures and things (Thwaites, Davis and Mules, 2002) play an integral role in creating meaning (Scribd, 2012). Much of what we have come to understand about society, is learnt from the texts that are presented around us through Hollywood blockbusters, to novels and magazines. Chandler concludes that life is thence lived through texts and framed by texts to a greater extent than we are normally aware of (Chandler, 2001).This means that advertisements not only refer to real earth concepts that we deal with day to day, that they also make reference to other texts. The level of this intertextuality (Fiske, 1987) is what influences social beliefs and ideals in the world we live in. The advertisement from Vogue (See ad 1) features a sepia- colour scheme, with an allurin g fe antheral to the right, and a bottle of jadore Dior redolence, to the left. Many signifiers are present in this advertisement the female (Charlize Theron), is appareled in an elegant gold beaded dress, with a high beaded neckline, drawing the viewers eye to her strong jaw-line and bronzed face.Her pose is that of elegance and situation, the ground light shining around her slim figure. The colour of the clothing, and overall image, compliment the golden-sepia tone of the bottle of perfume on the left. Chandeliers are placed around the perfume bottle, and out of focus behind the woman. The signifieds present are the gold dress giving an impression of the woman being a high profile constituent of society of, chandeliers are present in homes of the wealthy and the sepia tones represent warmth. By using a female of celebrity status, the advertisements appeal rises with the wider female audience, receivable to her known status.The key connotations featured in this advertisement are the gold coloured dress evinces wealth, elegance and popularity. The powerful and elegant stance of the woman entails power a female will gain when wearing this fragrance. Due to her celebrity status, the audience can also feel empowered, with a celebrity status. The sepia tones connote warmth, and invite the viewer to become involved with the advertisement. Along with the bronzed body of the woman, the French writing jadore (meaning I love) adds an essence of romance, and connotes zest, and sex appeal.As the ad connotes power, it is open for both upper and lower/middle class woman to interpret. Upper class woman could strive to maintain power, whilst lower class desire to gain power, by using the product. The way the creators of the ad have placed the female in this position, in these surroundings, to represent the product, has been done deliberately to target the craved audience woman have a desire to feel beautiful, powerful, and sexy, therefore the creator has appropriate ly placed the advertisement in a womens very well known and popular fashion magazine, to gain maximum results from the targeted audience.Leiss (1990) states that at the core of advertisings purposes now is not the message itself as a communicator of meaning, but rather its relationship to the audience (Leiss et al. , 1990). With the development of the theory of marketing segmentation, it is logical to therefore conclude that creators of advertisements dont focus on the product, but the signs and codes that connate particular meanings of positivity that are related to a certain lifestyle, culture, or social group (Scribd, 2012).The connotations pervade media representations, and symbolise psychological or social themes and situations that are familiar and understandable to the audience (Danesi, 2002), in order to boffoly sell the product. The advertisement from the Mens Health (see ad 2), is marketing tom turkey Ford Perfume. This somewhat controversial ad has many key signifiers. The male figure lying on a bed is the predominant focus, followed by a female hand with red nail polish touching the males chest. The object that is being advertised is only shown as a half.The basic colour scheme is black and white, with the exception of the red nail polish and orange cologne bottle. The signifieds present are the male is an essential selling point of the advertisement, therefore he takes up the majority of the page. Sex appeal is what the advertiser is trying to convey, and the glimpse of a female hand can be seen as elegant and flirty. The key connotations are the male figure as desirable and powerful- every woman would want an inner connection with him. The red fingernails connote passion, desire, lust, and a thirst for action (Danesi, 2002).By using this cologne, the advertisement connotes that the user will become the ultimate object of desire, playing in to the male want of intimate connections with females. As the male figure has sex appeal the advertiseme nt encourages the partner of a male to purchase the fragrance, so she could have a sexy male partner. The orange tone of the cologne bottle connotes warmth, stimulating the senses. When producers try to convey certain meanings, audiences may or may not assign the same meanings (Littlejohn, 1996).As mentioned in the first analysis, the advertisement is open to other audiences, whilst the male cologne ad is more closed, but it is up to the reader to decide whether or not they croak to the context or not. Signs are combined in to texts, but a text has no meaning on its own (Smagorinsky, 2001). It draws value from surrounding elements and from reader association, but also from what it is not (Littlejohn, 1998). The amalgamation of these creates the context in which the text functions if you arent a wearer of perfume or cologne, you will have no affaire in what it is trying to sell you, hence the importance of context.Thwaites and colleagues (2002) mention that the social situations in which a sign is used may determine the appropriate content, geek of sign and coding signs contextual functions indicate the context in which it operates (Thwaites, Davis and Mules, 2002). Chandler explains that Stuart Hall pointed to the role of social positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by distinct social groups (Chandler, 2001). Hall also suggested three hypothetical models of interpretive codes or positions for the reader of a text (Hall, 1980). But what Hall and also Chandler miss, is what happens when you dont understand an advertisement at all?Because, as Griffin says like chameleons that take on the colouration of their environment, words take on their meaning of the context in which they are used (Griffin, 2000). The opinion that the usefulness of semiotics decreases and is above all dependant on the skill of the interpreter is not new. Leiss (1990) argues that a key drawback for semiotics is that it is heavily dependent upon the skill of the individual analyst (Leiss, 1990). Less skilful analysts can do little more than state the obvious in a complex and often pretentious manner (Leiss, 1990).As Littlejohn (1996) states meanings of a message are affected by events outside the message itself, therefore the most successful advertisements focus on making sure the audience understands the content being conveyed (codes) and the content lays emphasis on certain meanings over others (context). In this perspective, the kind of magazine reflects how meanings are emphasised. Bignell (1997) even argues that as well as being a collection of signs, the magazine is a sign in itself (Bignell, 1997), the magazine is therefore a powerful ideological force (McRobbie, 2000) in society.Even though some postmodernists believe that texts are endlessly polysemic (Barthes 1977, Fiske 1987), meanings are still able to be communicated. Leiss (1990) argues that for advertising to create meaning, the reader or viewer must do some work, because the meaning is not lying there on the page, one has to make an bm to grasp it (Leiss et al, 1990). When analysing both of these advertisements, this statement is correct- the creators of the ad have given the reader A and C but the reader must fill in the blank, or as it is known in this example, B.The application of semiotics in advertising varies significantly depending on the product being sold. Common themes almost alship canal curb the same- the sense of freedom or excitement you get from purchasing a specific car or the feeling of popularity when you drink a certain figure of alcohol (Messaris, 1997). This is done by using specific images, which resonate with the intended audience. For example, if there is an advertisement for a new Jeep, images of it going through all types of terrain will be shown, or alcoholic beverages are advertised at a party scene, all to make the audience want to buy the product (Messaris, 1997).As Chandler and Bignell suggest, signs and codes can be a medium its elf, and described by Leiss (1990) an ad is a mediator between creator and reader, standing at the confluence of the double exemplary process in the marketplace, where producers of goods try to attempt to construct one set of meanings, and where consumers use these meanings (along with meanings drawn from other sources) in the construction of their own lifestyles (Leiss et al. , 1990).This is why semiotics is significant, even on a basic level, as it can show us how meanings have the ability to both construct and maintain particular social attitudes and ideals of a specific society. On a multifaceted level, the notion of intertextuality is intriguing and should be studied more widely as it exposes the many intricate ways in which contexts transfer from each other, showing how the contexts migrate from one another and portray the uncertainty of meaning. Appendix Ad 1. Ad 2. Bibliography Barthes, R. 1977, Image-Music-Text, London. Bignell, J. 1997, Media Semiotics An Introduction, Ma nchester Manchester University Press.Chandler, D (2001), Semiotics, the bedrock, Routledge. Culler, J. 1985, Saussure, London. Danesi, M. 2002, An Outline of Semiotic guess, In Understanding Media Semiotics, London, pp 28-53. Dior, 2012, (Dior Advertisement), Vogue Magazine, June 2012, pp. 1-2. Fiske, J. 1987, Intertextuality in Fiske, J, Television culture, Methuen Griffin, E. 2000, Communication a first look at chat theory, McGraw-Hill. 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