Semiotics

In the past, people believed that certain messages were encoded and placed in certain places in the text by the author. According to them it was their job of the receiver of the reader to decode it and understand the actual meaning of it.

In the same way, when you’re watching a movie, there are only a few ways of understanding the setting, and quotes. One of them being semiotics.

What is Semiotics?

Semiotics is a study of signs, signs can have many diffident approaches and different meanings. As there are so many cultures and beliefs, and everything becomes a sign connotes has something to the audience. This is known as polysemy.

Semiotics is all about the production meaning as an interactive process. If you look at it from this perspective, you see how creative texts interact with readers to produce a variety of possible readings.

Additionally, there are two types of texts. First, open texts. These texts are open and will invite multiple different readings and meanings, on the other hand, closed texts are closed and only let the reader think of it in one way.

Many signs can change their meanings, for example the Swastika was a scared symbol of peace and love in Hinduism and Buddhism. However, it was played around with and used as the symbol for the Nazi party.

One of the early Semioticians was a French philosopher called Roland Barthes. He promotes the idea of ‘The Death of the Author’ – causing us to study the ‘texts’, not the authors. As a result, everyone now interprets texts differently. In addition, he also came up with 3 great terms called the Order of Signification.

What is polysemy ?

“The coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase”

Ferdinand De Saussure – The Sign

A sign is something that represents something to someone. Furthermore, there are two parts to each sign:

Signifier – the label we put on a sign – the name or the sound

Signified – the mental association we get when we hear or see the sign

Denotation, Connotation and Anchorage

Denotation – the basic and literal meaning of what I being said or is in the picture

Connotation – the meaning within the text or subject which we interpret in our own way

Anchorage – a way of communicating through a picture or media

Semiotics is a sign study. Importantly, because we all have distinct cultural experiences and we all view the world differently, any sign or communication text (like a movie) can have many distinct meanings depending on who is looking at it–this is polysemy. Some texts are available and invite numerous readings.

Overall, I believe that semiotics are really important and, I would my documentary be easy to understand as it allows me to have a larger audience. However, I would also like the audience to be able to have open thoughts about my topic.