Page 224 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

SIGN

subject to change), meant that audiences could no longer simply be
thought of as passive receivers. Semiotics gave them something to do.
The reader of a text was active in the meaning-making process,
bringing with them cultural experiences, discourses and ideologies for
the process of making sense. Semiotics was a good technique for
making this largely spontaneous, untutored activity more self-reflexive
and critical.
See also: Sign, Signification

Further reading: Barthes (1973); O’Shaughnessy (1999)

SIGN

A concept drawn from semiotics, a sign is anything that stands for
something else in the production of meaning. It may include words,
photographs, sounds and gestures. A sign has three characteristics:
. it must have a physical form – you can see, hear, smell, and/or
touch it;
. it must refer to something other than itself;
. it must be used and recognised as a sign; that is, it be an element in a
shared cultural code or system.

According to Saussure’s theory of semiotics, a sign is made of two
equal parts:

. The signifier. This works at the level of denotation. It is objective (a
material thing). Using the oft-quoted example of a red rose, the
flower itself is the signifier.
. The signified. This works at the level of connotation. It is subjective (a
‘mentifact’ not an ‘artefact’). The signified is the concept referred
to by the signifier. In the instance of the red rose, what is signified
may be love, passion or the Labour Party.

As you can see by this example, the signified of the sign can sometimes
have more than one meaning (polysemy), but this is often tempered
by the context within which the sign is represented. A red rose means
one thing if given to a lover on Valentine’s day, another if given to a
parent. In another semiotic system, a red rose means ‘the Labour
Party’.

209