Analysis of cultural products using semiotics and process toolkits

Print media; magazine covers; flyers; posters; CD and DVD covers;

Vist Semiotics for Beginners for a more comprehensive guide.

Here are some of the key terms that you should become familiar with to analyse print based media for the AS Communication and Culture exam.

• Anchorage • Barrier • Channel • Connotation • Denotation

• Decode/Encode • Genre • Gatekeeper • Medium • Message

• Mode of address • Noise: barriers to communication • Semiotics

• Sign • Symbol • Text • Redundancy • Polysemic • Signifier/signified

• Preferred/Aberrant/Oppositional/Negotiated/Dominant – Readings

• Open and closed texts: allow a range of readings or limit them

Sample Analysis 1

Sample Analysis 2