Communicating Online: Social Semiotics

 Hello classmates!

This week, we are discussing the concept of social semiotics, and how to analyze images through this methodology. 

To begin, what exactly is social semiotics? According to Jeff Bezemer and Carey Jewitt of the University College London, "it studies the media of dissemination and the modes of communication that people use and develop to represent their understanding of the world and to shape power relations with others. It draws on qualitative, fine-grained analysis of records of meaning making, such as ‘artifacts’, ‘texts’, and ‘transcripts’, to examine the production and dissemination of discourse across the variety of social and cultural contexts within which meaning is made" (Bezemer, Jewitt, 2015). Basically, social semiotics is a branch of the field of semiotics which amalyzes what humans signify as important and meaningful within social and cultural circumstances, or "meaning-making." The concept of social semiotics was discovered by Michael Halliday in 1978 in his work Language as a Social Semiotic, who claimed that the ways in which people use language shapes the meaning in the social functions to which they are ascribed. According to Bezemer and Jewitt, this work was especially important as it served to identify the functions within each image or "sign":  "He [Halliday] holds that every sign serves three functions simultaneously: they express something about the world (‘ideational metafunction’), position people in relation to each other (interpersonal metafunction) and form connections with other signs to produce coherent text (‘textual metafunction’)" (Bezemer, Jewitt, 2015). 

If we are to truly understand what social semiotics means in the real world, we have to discuss the implied "rules" of the method. In an article for Applied Theory, government writing consultant Claire Harrison breaks down a few of the rules used in her field: 

"1. Understand how text and still images work together to make meaning together for readers/users.

2. Know when still images enhance or detract from text, and vice versa.

3. Be able to effectively discuss the issues of multimodal communications with other members of the document’s production team." (Harrison, 2003). 

Specifically, she states, depending on where and how images are placed can subconsciously influence the viewpoint of the reader. For instance, she uses government buildings as an example; if the building is shot from an aerial or a bird's eye point of view, the building is signified as reduced and unimportant. However, if the building is photographed from a "high verticle angle," which exaggerates the building's size and makes the reader feel as though they're looking up to the building, that can, in Harrison's words, "glorify" it's presence. In addition, Harrison states that images that convey motion and that are placed on the right hand side of the page where the reader's eye would go after reading the text, convey "powerful narratives" that put the reader in the place of those in the picture. In her article, she uses the example of a hand cradling the foot of a newborn, which would convey to a reader that this is a person who is caring for a new, innocent life, and this meaning would be immediately understood and empathized with by the reader. In addition to these rules, Harrison also breaks down the meanings of how photographs are shot, and what they convey: 

"The frontal angle: When an RP is presented frontally to the viewer. This angle creates stronger involvement on the part of the viewer as it implies that the RP is “one of us.”

The oblique angle: When an RP is presented obliquely to the viewer. This angle creates greater detachment since it implies that the RP is “one of them.”

High angle: The RP “looking up” has less power.

Medium angle: The RP “looking horizontally” has equal power.

Low angle: The RP “looking up” has less power" (Harrison, 2003). 

Through this methodology, we can then analyze images we see either on the internet or in billboards or advertisements. Take these images for instance: 

The green light image has literal and symbolic meanings. Literally, it's a traffic signal that indicates to cars when they can and cannot drive through an intersection. Symbolically, this image can be used in articles trying to influence public policies related to traffic, convey to the reader that the idea in the article below the image needs to move forward, or even informing a reader of a certain product or medication ready for purchase in the market. The second image, the well known "home" icon seen on nearly every website, also has a literal and symbolic image. Literally, it stands for the physical home or apartment we occupy. Symbolically, on websites, this is understood to take us back to the home page of a website, where all the website's pages, or "rooms" are visible for us. The fact that the image is of the entire house, and not just a single room, is intentional: the icon represents the whole picture, not just one area. 

-H