Visual Communications - Episode Two

SEMIOTICS
> The study of meaning
> Began with the study of literature
> Possible problems with transmission (refer to the earliest communication models)

There are 3 levels of PROBLEMS in Communication:
1. Technical - e.g. media
2. Semantic - How precisely do the "codes" convey the meaning we intended? How much of the message can be lost without the meaning being lost?
3. Effectiveness - Does the message affect behaviour the way we want it to?

TARGET AUDIENCE
Demographics - defining the audience
¤ Social classes: Professionals
Government people
Nurses + Technicians
Skilled Workers
Semi-skilled Workers
Pensioners + Casual Workers

¤ Actualisers
¤ Fulfilled
¤ Achievers

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Polysemy: An image that has more than one meaning.

>> Neville Brody <<

¤ Concept = signified (signifie)
¤ Sound Image = signifier (signifiant)
Signifier <> Signified relationship

Example: One's mental image (mental picture, mental smell, mental noise etc.) of a car may not be the same as another person's.

¤ There is a "Real World" out there to which we all refer in words which mean the same to all of us.
> The "Real World" will be different for everyone of us.

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Icons: Signs whose signifer bears a close resemblance to the thing they refer to.
> Onomatopoeic words: whisper, cuckoo, splash, crash.
Symbols: e.g. most words, little relationship between image and meaning.
Indexes: Lies between icons and symbols:
> Sign whose signifer we have learnt to associate with a particular signified.
> e.g. smoke as an index of "fire"
thermometer as an index of "temperature"

¤ TV uses all three at the same time: a shot of a man speaking (iconic), the words he uses (symbolic), and the effect of what is filmed (indexical).
¤ With any kind of sign, we always have to learn the cultural conventions involved:
> Conventions necessary to understanding any sign, however iconic of indexical it is.
> Social dimension of signs.
> Agreement amongst the users on the appropriateness of and responses to a sign.

Terms in Semiotics

• Hegemony <-resists-> Counter-culture & Sub-cultures
• Noise - interferes with the message.
• Entropy - the rate of transfer of the message. Highly entropic is fast.
• Redundancy - refers to something that could be left out, like a cliche.
• Authorship - the client or sometimes the designer is the Author.

¤ Redundancy e.g. cliches, overly decorated, starbursts etc.
> example. computer ad.
1. smiling kid at the computer
2. smiling mum hovering over him/her
3. mum is holding up his report card with an A+ on it
[ OVERKILL ]