Preliminary Exercises 1: Ferdinand de Saussure's Theory of Semiotics Analysis

Introduction Paragraph

Hi my amazing audience! For today's blog post, we are discussing the theory of semiotics, discovered by Ferdinand de Saussure.

Semiotics- The study of signs in media

Semiotics was a study conducted by Ferdinand de Saussure. He believed that everything represented in media is a sign, and that a sign is made up of two parts. A signifier and the signified. 

Sign- An object or thing that creates a indication of something else.

Signified- The meaning created by the signifier.

Signifier- A sign's physical design

Saussure's theory is beneficial to the research of a film because it shows various different ways to view the film itself. For example, in Beauty and the Beast, the rose is a symbol of beauty and destiny, while in the film V for Vendetta, it is a sign of revenge. The objective of this exercise is to analyze meaning through Saussure's lens. The pictures below show his theory, and its examples of simple signs in the media. 

Reflection

For this assignment, my partner and I created a PowerPoint presentation delving deep into Saussure's theory of semiotics. The purpose of this was to understand how to dissect media signs better. While creating this assignment, we only used PowerPoint and google. I would say I'm an expert in using this application. 

On the slides I inputted into this assignment, we mentioned Saussure and his theory, the definition of signs, signifiers, signified, and we also gave three examples of this theory being used in modern day times. 

My partner and I were the only members working on this assignment. Our responsibilities were split in half. We divided the work, and we helped design the PowerPoint together. 

From this exercise, I learned that signs are interpreted in loads of ways, and that they are made up of two variables. (signifier, signified). Thank you for showing up! P is closing up.

Work Cited

https://empiremovies.com/2019/12/10/roses-as-a-symbol-in-movies/ 

https://www.1800flowers.com/blog/flowers-in-art/roses-in-pop-culture/ 

https://medium.com/the-living-philosophy/what-is-semiotics-b3433fa7420f