ABSTRACT
Media language describes the combination of written, verbal, nonverbal, aural and aesthetic communication and its instantaneous
connection to meaning. The task of the critically media literate student is simply to ‘deconstruct’ this assemblage of meaning. Generally, media courses begin with still images and work on to moving images, so for this reason this chapter follows suit. Still image analysis often begins with semiotics – the study of signs. Semiotics is a branch of Structuralism and notable figures
in this theoretical school include Peirce, Saussure and Barthes. Structuralism sought to identify structures that provide a network for meaning as located in texts (stories, images, clothes, films, videogames, dance movements – anything that carries meaning beyond its physical properties). The focus here is on how meaning is constructed within a culture in a systematic way. Semiotics looks at meaning at the level of the individual sign, which is divided into its signifier and its signified. If the sign is a man’s tie, then the signifier is the physical property that we can all agree on (a garment around a man’s neck with a particular texture and colour) and the signified is what meaning we attribute to it – this is conceptual – we imagine it, or at least agree on what it ‘means’ without there being a ‘natural’ logical reason why it should mean this. So, there is an agreement that a man ought to wear a tie in certain situations – certain forms of work or business, often at a wedding, certainly for most people at a job interview. But why? The signified is to do with formality, being ‘smart’, appropriate attire, taking thing seriously. But the signifier doesn’t in itself dictate that. It is a cultural decision. Our names are signs, as are all words. Once we learn a language,
we cannot stop to disconnect the signifier from the signified.When we are in a foreign country where we cannot understand the language, we just hear the sounds, but once we know the language we are constantly and instantaneously decoding the meaning of every sign. Here is an illustration: Read these words (they are in Lithuanian) – braškiu˛ ir šalto alaus.
