Semiotics Theory by Barthes

The Theory

Semiotic theory is the study of signs and symbols by a man named Roland Barthes. He researched how an audience views and interprets a piece of media. He believed that audiences looked for signs to help them understand the narrative of the media being presented. The signs are based on expectations that the audiences had due to how society believe in myths and old tales.

The signs are a connotation, so a word, an image, a sound etc. Denotation is what it means literally, so for example, the word cat signifies an animal that meows or when marketing a business may use a logo with the name featured. Over time though the symbol within the logo will be the only thing that is needed as the symbol itself is recognisable and has more meaning.

An example of where this has been done is for Nike. There is the logo, so the Nike tick, with the word Nike or there is the logo tick with the slogan 'Just do it'. However, where the brand has become more recognisable, Nike are able to just use the tick.

Another example would be road signs. This could be something as simple as a stop sign (The signifier) as a stop sign signals to the traffic when to stop (The signified).

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