Barthes Semiotic Theory

Barthes Semiotic Theory

Symbolic codes

• Symbol -an image that represents something else. (cross might represent a church and symbolise Christianity. If you see a heart it symbolises love.) 
• Semantic code- Parts of a media product that we understand have a hidden meaning. There is a connotation to them that we understand as an audience. (a horror movie will hohave a lot of red and black colours because they have links to death and blood, which makes us associate with horror films.)
• Action codes/ Proairetic code- elements of media products that signify something is going to happen as a result. (if we saw a clip of a person pulling out a gun it would signify someone is going to be shot.) What we can see, what is happening and then meaning behind it. It can show narrative. In The Mirrors newspaper it shows the statue of liberty holding her hands in her face as if she is ashamed, this acts as a Proairetic code, it suggest that the mirror thinks america is going to crumble and that America has made a bad mistake and will end up as a disaster from the election, also showing their political bias. 
• Enigma codes/ Hermeneutic- Enigma means mystery, any mysterious part of media text that will hook an audience in and make them want to read the article, you need to look at your set text and see if you can find those examples. Using a rhetorical question to hook in the reader on the front cover of the page such as 'what does this mean for the world?' making you want to open the paper and read the full article and find out the answer. 
• Cultural/ referential codes- Parts of a media product that you will only understand if you are part of that culture. It could mean a culture such as an ethnicity, country or nationality, or it could mean that you need to be part of a specific age group or gender or a historical time period to understand that code. People who come from outside of that culture will not understand. They can be hard to understand for some audiences excluding them, but some people include them as they can add meaning, and narrative.