Semiotics

Semiotics – the study of signs; anything which stands for something else.

Denotation – what we see when we look at an image (what it is at face value).

Connotation – what we understand from an image (other meanings and understandings).

Connotations to the colour red:

· Hatred

· Anger

· Love

· Blood

· Danger/a warning

· Communism

· Stop signs

· Warmth/heat

· Fire

· Violence/aggression

Preferred reading – how the creator wants the audience to view a media text.

Oppositional reading – where the intended meaning of the media text is opposed misinterpreted or rejected by the viewer.

Polysemia – multiple meanings/readings.

HALLS THEORY – Stuart Hall created the theory that audiences can have many different reactions to media.