• Semiotics: the theory of signs.
  • Ferdinand de Saussure: was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders (together with Charles Sanders Peirce) of semiotics.
  • Sign: A sign is anything that creates meaning. It is composed of a signifier and a signified.
  • Signifier: A word, an image, a sound, or anything we see, speak, or hear to refer to the sign.
  • Signified: The concept that our mind conjures in relation to the sign.
  • Charles Sanders Peirce: was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher. one of two major founders (together with Ferdinand de Saussure) of semiotics.
  • Icon: signifier resembles the signified (e.g. a graphic image of a dog resembles an actual dog)
  • Symbol: arbitrary learned relationship between the signifier and signified (e.g. we must learn from others that a dollar sign $ refers to money)
  • Index: signifier is caused by or linked to the signified (e.g. we associate smoke with fire)
  • Simile: is comparison through the use of the word ‘as’ or ‘like.’ > “Like a Rock“
  • Metaphor: is a form of figurative or nonliteral language. > “Red Bull Gives You Wings!“
  • Synecdoche: (suh·nek·duh·kee) another type of metonym, using a phrase or visual that contains part of the whole to represent one of its parts or vice versa. > A brand name stands in for a type of product. Band-Aids and Kleenex
  • Irony: is a technique used by storytellers to contrast expectations with reality, often in an amusing way. > Some examples in advertising
  • Roland Barthes: was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. He argued that when we construct a sign, its reception does not take place in a vacuum. Our individual experience, society, and culture impact its meaning and how it is interpreted.
  • Encoding: creating a message for transmission (i.e., creation and distribution of an advertisement)
  • Decoding: the process of interpreting a message (i.e., watching and interpreting an advertisement)
  • Denotation: Literal meaning (a message without code)
  • Connotation: symbolic or cultural meaning (a coded message)
  • Linguistic message: words used to convey meaning
  • Non-coded iconic message: an image with literal meaning
  • Coded iconic message: an image with a coded message
  • Polysemic: a sign that has multiple meanings
  • Myth: a widely accepted meaning of a sign
  • Naturalization: in a society, the repeated use of signs shapes their meaning
  • Stereotype: are widely circulated oversimplifications of people and groups; a preconceived idea of what a person is like, based on a range of different factors. These factors can involve culture, religion, race, sexual orientation, age, gender, appearance.
  • Transactional Model of Communication: Communication is seen as a continuous, interactive process where both parties exchange roles as senders and receivers, with each participant influencing and being influenced by the other. This model stresses the dynamic nature of communication; reflecting the complexities of contemporary communication in various contexts such as interpersonal interactions, organizational communication, and mass media.
  • Sender: The person who originates the message and encodes it into a form that can be transmitted.
  • Message: The information being transmitted from the sender to the receiver.
  • Channel: The medium through which the message is transmitted (e.g., face-to-face, email, phone call, social media).
  • Noise: Any interference or distortion that may disrupt the communication process and the meaning of a message, such as environmental distractions, language barriers, or differences in interpretation.
  • Context: The situational factors surrounding the communication, including cultural norms, social dynamics, and physical environment, which can influence how messages are sent, received, and interpreted.
  • Receiver: The person who receives the message and decodes it to understand its meaning.
  • Feedback: The response or reaction from the receiver, which may be verbal or non-verbal, providing information to the sender about how the message was received and understood.
  • Stuart Hall: was a Jamaican-born British sociologist, cultural theorist, and political activist. He looked at the power of mainstream media to understand the representation of race, gender, class, ethnicity, and religion.
  • ReceptionTheory: Stuart Hall’s theory asserts that advertising and media are encoded and decoded. The creator encodes messages and values into media, which are then decoded by the audience. Audiences will decode the media differently and not always in the way the creator intended.
    • Dominant, or Preferred Reading: how the creator wants the audience to view the advertisement or media.
    • Oppositional Reading: when the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own meaning. This can happen when content is controversial, or when the audience holds different beliefs or is of a different age or culture.
    • Negotiated Reading: a compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings. The audience accepts some of the creator’s view, but also has their own views.
  • Representation Theory: Stuart Hall’s theory claims that there is no true representation of people or events in media. Designers/creators try to ‘fix’ a ‘preferred meaning’ through ideology or stereotyping. Historically, this is driven by people in power.
  • Cultivation Theory: is a communication and media studies concept that explores how exposure to media messages influences perceptions of reality. Developed by George Gerbner in the 1960s, cultivation theory suggests that prolonged exposure to certain themes and portrayals in media can shape individuals’ beliefs and attitudes about the world.
  • Framing: refers to the way information is presented (or framed) and the impact it has on shaping public perception. It explores how the framing of messages, such as images, language, and narratives of certain groups of people in the news, influences the way people interpret and understand events or issues.