Media Language and Semiotics

Every medium has its own 'Language' - or combination of languages, that is used to communicate moaning, They're generally understood as they use familiar codes and conventions.

• E.g - TV uses verbal and written languages as well as the languages of moving images and sound. (Scary music - horror - anticipating a scary moment)

Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying' something.

Pierce (1931) 

"Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign"

Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1974)

He offered a 'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of:

• a 'signifier' (significant) - the form which the sign takes
• and the 'signified' (signifie) - the concept it represents

Charles Sanders Pierce (1931) - 3 Types of Sign

1. Icon/Iconic: A mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or irritating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities. E.g - A portrait, cartoon, scale model, onomatopoeia, metaphors, 'realistic' sound in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack and imitative gestures.
2. Index/Indexical: A mode in which the signifier isn't arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or casually) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred. E.g - 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours) medical symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate) measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level). 
3. Symbol/Symbolic: A mode in which the signifier doesn't resemble he signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt. E.g - Language in general.

Roland Barthes (1967) 

Roland noted, Saussure's model of the sign focused on denotation at the expense of connotation and it was left to subsequent theorists (notably Barthes himself) to offer an account of his important dimension of meaning. Barthes (1977) argued photography connotation can be (analytically) distinguished from denotation.

• Myth - Barthes (1977)

For Barthes myths were the dominant ideologies of our time. The first and second orders of signification called denotation and connotation combine to produce ideology - which has been described as a third order of signification by Fiske and Hartley (1982).

As John Fiske (1982) puts it 'denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it's photographed'. (Links to Barthes' editing at stage of production)

• Encoding - messages and values producers put into a media text.
• Decode - the audiences perception of the text.