Textual Analysis - The Semiotic approach

Trigger Sheet
SEMIOTICS
The study of signs, their systems and their role in the construction and reconstruction of meaning.
Developed from the work of linguistic philosophers De Saussure and Pierce and more recently from
the work of French 'structuralist' Roland Barthes in the 1960's.

Semiology examines the sign itself, the codes or systems in which the signs are organised and the
culture in which these signs operate.
In terms of Media study these terms are best understood as the media text itself, visual & other
symbolic codes and the culture within which texts operate.

Semiotics has become the main method for studying media texts and is now used as a system of
analysis for all areas of communication. There is virtually nothing which is not a sign capable of
meaning. Semiotics has influenced our understanding of popular culture and has been applied to
areas such as music, fashion , eating and dance.

The TEXT - the starting point

Semiotics is essentially a theoretical approach or a method for analysis of media texts and is in the
first instance text centred (the starting point).
The particular methods of denotation (describing) and connotation ( myths & associations) are
frequently used as a starting point for image analysis. Anchorage is a term used by Barthes to
describe the ways in which words work upon certain visual texts (i.e. news photos or adverts) to
direct the reader to a particular preferred reading( see below).

Meaning
The quest for meaning is at the heart of the semiotic approach. For semiologists meaning is not fixed
or the sole property of the text or its author it lies in a relationship between text and the reader
(audience).A variety of meanings are possible depending upon the cultural position of the
reader.(receiver) i.e. age, class, ethnicity, life experiences etc.

Semiotics is concerned with the social production of meaning (language cannot be invented by
individuals) and has links with theories of social relations and popular culture.Semiotics has
attempted to show how meaning is subject to the same power relations/struggles as other areas of
social production / society.

The role of the reader (receiver)

In recent years greater importance has been placed on the role of the reader in the production of
meaning, how we interpret/read texts and are positioned by them and of the cultural
conditions/context of the reader i.e. watching TV at home. (ref. to Morley's 'Nationwide' study 1980)
Although most media texts are open to a number of possible meanings and interpretations
(polysemic) some are more open than others, many mass media texts attempt to position the
reader to assume a preferred or fixed meaning as defined by the producer via the text (closed
texts).

Open & closed texts

Open texts ( Polysemic)

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All texts are open to a number of possible meanings and interpretations. Most media texts are
polysemic. An open text may have a variety of meanings dependent upon the age, sex and cultural
background of the reader.Open texts tend to more high brow, high culture whereas closed texts tend
to more popular, mass culture e.g. mass media texts.

Closed texts
A term used to describe a text that contains a dominant or preferred meaning. Such texts attempt to
direct audiences in to understanding one particular meaning. This is often done through a process of
anchorage where words,captions or logos are used to direct a reader towards a particular meaning.
(see adverts, newspapers etc.).

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 (2)
Preferred meaning

Refers to a text that prefers one particular meaning, by analysis of the internal structure of the text,
codes,conventions etc. one can identify this preference. Preferred meaning can result from the
agendas and assumptions of media producers and can be ideological in nature. The more closed the
text the more obvious the preferred meaning.

Do audiences always accept preferred meanings ? Not always , the Social/cultural position of the
reader can affect the response, readers may respond to their social position not the text.

Stuart Hall et.al. 1980 identified 3 main types of audience decoding.

(1) Dominant - when the reader accepts the full preferred reading offered by the text.

(2) Negotiated - where the content of the message is adapted to fit the specific social condition of
the reader to produce a new meaning. i.e. middle class women may respond to advert portraying
female as a sex object as OK but not for me, she may have other ideas on how to assert her
independence/control.

(3) Oppositional - where the dominant reading is contested and a reading which opposes it is
produced. i.e. feminist may see the same image as degrading to all women and exploitative.

With reference to the example of the advert used above; A dominant reading could be produced by a
women who would buy the product, a negotiated reading by a woman who might buy and an
oppositional reading by a women who would not buy the product.

Other devices used by texts to offer meanings/positions to their readers

Modes of Address

Media texts always address somebody, they seek to engage their audiences in the practice of reading
or viewing. Devices used may be direct or indirect, obvious and subtle. The term mode of address
refers to 'how media texts 'speak to' an audience.

Audience identity is written into texts in a number of ways. Variations in tone, pace, language etc.
will reflect the producers notions of who the audience is.

Modes of address will vary depending on the media form and the perceived audience. As a general
rule the more specialised the target audience, the more distinctive will be the mode of address. e.g.
computer and other technical magazines will, through style and language, restrict access to those
without the required knowledge.

Interpellation -
is a specific mode of address aimed at positioning receivers so that they accept their
place in a discourse. Marxist philosopher Althusser’s work in this area has led some to suggest that
media texts position receivers to accept the position being offered, rendering subjects vulnerable to
dominant ideologies.

Some typical modes of address

Films - impersonal, audience rarely acknowledged. Spectator placed in privileged position of often
knowing more than the characters. Audience addressed indirectly through narrative viewpoints.
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Plots usually resolved (closure).Little sense of author/producer outside credits. Audience invited in
to experience another world.

cont. over

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 (3)

Television - personal, direct address to viewer who is acknowledged. works to attract our attention
because viewing can be casual, texts such as News, soaps, sitcoms refuse resolution (are
continuous). Viewers assumed to be members of a family (see watershed, children's slots etc.). As a
national audience (see Queens xmas message, sports events etc.). More specialist audiences
beginning to be addressed ( cable channels, C4 etc.).

Radio - most personal/intimate, regional/local - variations in accent , tone and delivery. distinctive
audiences , attempts to construct dialogue with audience (phone ins). Access (‘your station’). Use of
jingles to establish stations sense of identity.

Magazines - direct address through text and images, front page important in establishing identity.
can appeal to different aspects of personality e.g. women's mags can appeal to woman as friend,
mother,wife, worker, lover, individual etc. Visual appeal is important.

Newspapers -
Broadsheets - impersonal , formal , detached. Subdued tone, non participatory and less direct than
tabloids. Tabloids - loud ,personal, more direct , use of participatory gestures. Front page/visuals
more important than broadsheets.

Point of View

Emerging out of the study of film, writers have become interested in how the language of media
texts can produce a perspective or point of view for the spectator, thus weaving them into the flow
of communication.
For example, film language through the use of Shot/reverse shot and the glance/object shot
can enable us to ‘stand in’ for individual characters - to see the world from their perspective, through
their eyes. As spectators we are usually given a privileged view of events yet are unconsciously
‘sewn in’ to the narrative structure usually as observers. We are invited to occupy a social as well as
a physical space.

The Male Gaze

In film study some writers have argued that the dominant Hollywood perspective is male. Camera
shots and editing combine to represent women as objects of the controlling male gaze. The audience
are stitched in to ‘sexist’ positions as though they are ‘natural’ ways of perceiving reality.

The Role of Pleasure

In recent years semiotics has - in line with the increasing focus on the role of the receiver - began to
analyse the role that pleasure and desire play in the communication process. It has become clear that
readers/audiences do not always occupy the positions offered and do not necessarily produce rational
responses to texts. The more irrational concepts of pleasure and desire are seen as having a role in
our enjoyment of texts.
The focus has been upon the kinds of devices used to promote different kinds of pleasure.
Much of the work done in this area has been by feminist writers and has crossed over into the field
of psychoanalytical theory and other sociological approaches. The links between pleasure and
sexuality have begun to be explored including Spectatorship, Voyeurism and the sexualization of
messages.

Intertextuality

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Refers to way that texts can be read in the light of knowledge of other media texts. e.g an advert that
refers to a film etc. Increasingly popular, the use of intertextual references is appealing to the
'knowing receiver' who may derive a certain amount of pleasure from this knowledge and may be
more receptive to the message, (particularly with adverts).

'Intertextual' texts can offer a number of meanings and are self consciously, media constructions.
The readers of this kind of material could be said to be amateur semiologists.

(4)

To sum up;

the Semiotic approach (the study of signs) is in the first instance, text centred

and is

concerned with the sources and construction of meaning.

the methods of denotation and connotation are used as a starting point for image analysis.

there is increasing interest in the relationship between media texts and their readers (audiences).

the semiotic approach has been widely used and adapted and is the main method for studying media
texts.

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