Visual Communication Online

 

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

The resource I used when to write this post about Social Semiotics

Social semiotics has concern around meaning makers and the meaning making. Different modes of communication are used to develop and represent understanding of the world and relate to others. The first and biggest influence on social semiotics was Micheal Halliday in his proposed ideas seen in Language as Social Semiotic. This methodology is important because it creates analysis of different modes with concern with meaning and context. 

Social semiotics have distinctive analysis using specific concepts:

• Signs

• Elements where meaning and form are brought together

• Semiotic Resources

• These resources can be actions, materials, or artifacts that hold social rules and are used for communicative purposes

• Mode

• Modes are resources used in meaning making that are socially or culturally shaped

• Different tests can be used to see if these are true modes

• “Meta-function test” has 3 functions simultaneously

• Expressing something about the world

• Position people to relate to each other

• Form connections to better understand with other signs

• Community test

• Is the image only meaningful and coherent to the individual or to a larger socially or culturally connected group?

• Mode displays regularities for people to read

• Affordance

• Multimodal Orchestration

• Meaning can be seen throughout with different modes in different ways but are combined as one 

Photo by S&B Vonlanthen on Unsplash

I feel that this photo shows lots of symbolism. Here we see that the children are the main focus of the photo with the Christmas tree in the background. Culturally we know that Christmas trees and Santa hats represent the Christmas holiday. Socially, we understand the significance and wonder of Christmas as a child, and may even feel nostalgia from this image. The social semiotics method helps us to analyze and put all the different aspects of this image (the children, how they are hugging, the Santa hats, and the Christmas tree) to feel memories and emotions surrounding this one image. 

Photo by Usman Yousaf on Unsplash

This photo may have multiple meanings to different people and communities. We can see that the main focus of the image is this man and the emotion he is feeling. We are able to see  that this man looks to hold a doctor or nurse occupation. Socially we may be able to feel an immediate sense of knowing what emotion this man feels. Stress, sadness, concentration, or concern. Looking at a more cultural view as someone who may be in the same occupational community, they may feel empathy for what this man feels, or begin to imagine scenarios he may be faced with. Using the social semiotic method we see how different people may interpret the meaning of this image differently based on historical, social, and cultural context. 

Reference:

Bezemer, J., & Jewitt, C. (2009). Social Semiotics. Handbook of Pragmatics, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.13.soc5