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Chapter 33—Semiotics

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Title:
Friends, S7, E21, "The One with the Vows"
Claim:
The connotative shift of significant denotative visual sign systems in our culture affirm the status quo by suggesting the world as we know it is natural, inevitable, and eternal.
Application:
Candles in a darkened room, kneeling, and an engagement ring are three denotative signs accompanying Chandler’s proposal of marriage to Monica. How has the connotative shift of these seemingly neutral signs occurred?
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZalJQs4odMU
Cue Point:
7:36-9:50
Discovered  By:
Em

Title:
"Roland Barthes - How to Read the Signs in the News", Al Jazeera English
Claim:
Semiotics (or semiology) is the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems; the analysis of anything that can stand for something else.
Application:
This brief video offers an engaging, visually creative summary of Barthes' semiotics. Particularly enlightening is the introduction, which sheds like on the sheer number of signs occurring at the start of a newscast.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeF6O6E9RQ8
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Roland Barthes - How to Read the Signs in the News", Al Jazeera English
Claim:
Semiotics (or semiology) is the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems; the analysis of anything that can stand for something else.
Application:
This brief video offers an engaging, visually creative summary of Barthes' semiotics. Particularly enlightening is the introduction, which sheds like on the sheer number of signs occurring at the start of a newscast.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeF6O6E9RQ8
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Roland Barthes - How to Read the Signs in the News", Al Jazeera English
Claim:
Semiotics (or semiology) is the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems; the analysis of anything that can stand for something else.
Application:
This brief video offers an engaging, visually creative summary of Barthes' semiotics. Particularly enlightening is the introduction, which sheds like on the sheer number of signs occurring at the start of a newscast.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeF6O6E9RQ8
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Maddie Ziegler Reveals Dance Moms is Fake," TheThings
Claim:
Semiotic systems consist of a world of interrelated signs (i.e., the inseparable combination of the signifier and the signified).
Application:
Like the world of wrestling analyzed by Barthes, the world of reality television is a rich semiotic system, edited and choreographed to convey ideological content. This clip considers the popular show Dance Moms, with the specific selection highlighting how the moms' fights and Maddie's injury were presented in the show. Consider both the fights and the imagery using Barthes' languages: What is the signifier? The signified? What is their role in the broader semiotic system of Dance Moms specifically (and reality television generally)? Are these mythic (i.e., second-order) sign systems, and if so, what ideological content do they convey?
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgM5wJnoXNU
Cue Point:
0:00-2:03
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Proof America's Got Talent is Totally Fake", Nicki Swift
Claim:
A connotative sign system is a mythic sign that has lost its historicla referent; form without substance.
Application:
The purpose of this clip is to reveal evidence that the popular show America's Got Talent is staged--in other words, that it is not a mere denotative sign system. Barthes would have been even more interest in what these staged elements mean, or what ideology they convey. You might analyze the show elements highlighted in the video. How do the following function as connotative sign systems?: (1) The rookie contestant with a tragic backstory. (2) Crying children who appear happy to be moving to the next round. (3) The power of the judges to determine who goes on and who goes home. (4) The autonomy of contestants to decide what to do in the competition. (5) Amazing magic tricks that are presented as authentic and unedited.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoVDnTEzeVc
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
Big Bang Theory, S6, E4, "The Re-Entry Minimization"
Claim:
The signifier is the physical form of the sign as we perceive it through out senses, and the signified is the meaning we associate with the sign.
Application:
From the perspective of semiotics, Pictionary is a game of matching the signified to a signifier drawn as a series of images. Can you use the vocabulary of Barthes' semiotics to explain Penny, Amy, Sheldon, and Leonard's round of Pictionary?
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8lMW0MODFs
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Look What You Made Me Do" music video, Taylor Swift, Reputation
Claim:
A connotative sign system is a mythic sign that has lost its historicla referent; form without substance.
Application:
Early in the video, Taylor sits in a bathtub filled with diamonds… and a single dollar bill. As a denotative sign, it clearly refers to wealth. But Taylor includes it here as a connotative, second-order semiotic system: The single dollar bill represents the amount she claimed against her sexual harasser in a high-profile lawsuit. And so the sign signifies all women who experience sexual abuse and the courage it takes to confront it.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmd-ClpJxA
Discovered  By:
Andrew

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