Week 2
Introduction to Semiotics and Visual Language

Required Readings on Semiotics: Getting Clear on the Concepts

• Follow the Semiotics overview (topic links at bottom of each section) on the Communication, Cultural, and Media Studies Information Base site
• Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners, read sections 1-2.
• Mieke Bal, "Semiotics for Beginners," from On Meaning-Making (1994).

Supplementary Reading and Primary Theory Sources

Roland Barthes, Mythologies, 1, "Myth Today" (trans. Annette Lavers, 1984) (pdf). (An html version)
[One of Barthes' first descriptions of semiology, the term adopted by French theorists. A source of confusion may be his use of the term "myth," by which Barthes means the second-order meanings and codes that we live by.]

Resources

Semiotic Models of Interpretation (Irvine)

Media Theory and Semiotics: Key Terms and Concepts (Irvine)

Semiotics and Cultural Theory: Basic Assumptions (Irvine)

Case Studies of Advertising and Fashion: Reading and Decoding

Readings on Advertising:

• John Harms and Douglas Kelner, "Toward a Critical Theory of Advertising" (essay on the Illuminations website).
• Theory Source Websites
  • Semiotics of Media Site (U. Vermont)
  • Media Studies Site: Advertising
• Critiques of advertising
  • Creativity's AdCritic
  • Adbusters
  • Cristopher Lasch on "The Propoganda of Commodities."
• Inside the Industry
  • Randal Rothenberg, "The Advertising Century," Advertising Age. [Inside view of the advertising industry with an emphasis on how the industry focuses on brands.]
  • Advertising Age Magazine
• Advertising Age: Timeline of Advertising

Ads to consider

Unofficial Archive of Calvin Klein ads

Other fashion advertising: The Condé Nast Universe: W and Vogue, GQ and Details

Ads on major websites: CNN, Fox, Fox News, New York Times, Time

Discussion of Gibson, Pattern Recognition

Student Presentation: Advertising and Semiotics

Choose a set of ads from any or mixed media for analysis of how they work from the perspective of social codes and signs.