Semiotics to images and text
Semiotics are the study of signs and symbols, it is a way of
understanding the literal and the possible meanings of images and words e.g.
The colour red is described as danger or love, passion when really it’s just
the colour red. These are called denotations and connotations.
Connotations are the suggested
meanings of the image or text. What people stereotypically label straight away.
Denotations are the literal or obvious meaning of the image
or text. It is what you actually see.
For example: when people see an image of Lindsay Lohan. They
think of drugs, alcoholic or even disgusting.
They label her for what she’s done wrong. This is the connotation of the
image. But really it’s just a picture of Lindsay Lohan drinking. This is the
denotation of the image.
People will take into account on the camera angle of the
shot. Is it close up? Focused on one thing to single out exactly the image is
showing e.g. the amount of glasses in Ms Lohan’s area subconsciously makes you
thing that she’s an alcoholic. Even the clothes she’s wearing in the picture.
Is it revealing? Is it trendy? Has the person lost touch in style? It raise’s
too many questions by focusing on the clothes as people will judge other people
on their appearance. If you catch a person blinking it could make them seem
drunk in the picture. Ms Lohan has her eyes closed and a distorted smile which
people would describe her as drunk. But she may just of blinked or sneezing in
the shot but even when they don’t know people will still stereotype the
picture.
For my school magazine, I will use images
that match the schools house colours. This shows that the school is structured
and matching as the magazine will only use say 3 or 4 colours. I will place the
school logo in the corner of the cover as people will instantly recognise it as
their students’ magazine without even reading it. This will draw parents’
attention instantly and encourage them to read on. Also I will put a mini
contents on the front to show the main stories of the magazine without people
having to read much and if they are interested the will read on. This will
persuade parents to read as they’ve seen an interesting story on the cover.
Semiotics for text is the same, just labelling text for its
size, shape or even the femininity of the word itself e.g. ‘bliss’ isn’t going
to be a car magazine for over 40’s. People will connotations for text to.
Magazine titles should make sense to the aim of the publication. It should make
sense to the reader but also give them an idea about the magazines aspirations.
Over and out.
