Visual Semiotics Research Articles

PRESENTATION OF RISK AND RISK PERCEPTION IN INSURANCE ADVERTISEMENTS IN TURKEY: THE CASE OF 1963 HAYAT MAGAZINE

In parallel with the development of the insurance sector in Turkey, there has been an increase in the number of print advertisements. This increase has been reflected in the content of advertisements in direct proportion to the development of both the insurance sector and the advertising sector. It is possible to see the traces of this development, especially in the presentation of risk and risk perception in advertisements. This study aims to reveal how insurance advertisements presented risk and risk perception to the public in the past. Insurance advertisements published in Hayat Magazine in 1963 were selected through convenience sampling. Then, common codes were extracted from the advertisements through content analysis conducted independently by two researchers. The advertisements emphasizing risk and risk perception presented with any visuals were determined by criterion sampling from purposive sampling methods and 3 advertisements meeting these criteria were analyzed by both content analysis and visual semiotics analysis methods. Within the framework of its limitations, the research highlights two main themes in the presentation of risk and risk perception in insurance advertisements: 1- Risk and risk perception are presented to society with content based on fear of the future. 2- The contents mostly emphasize socio-cultural elements and life practices.

Soundscapes of two rural communities in Papua New Guinea

This article presents an analysis of the soundscapes in two rural communities in northwestern Papua New Guinea where the endangered languages Srenge and Walman are spoken. These languages have no written tradition and therefore are not publicly displayed in signage. In the last few years, the discipline of linguistic landscape studies has fostered the study of aspects of the visual semiotics of public signs together with aspects of other semiotic modalities including interactional semiotics and auditory semiotics. By discussing the sounds of instruments, conch shells, place names, recitations, and messenger birds in areas where Srenge, Walman, and other languages are spoken, the aim is twofold. The first goal is to fill a gap in the study of semiotic systems that play a role in linguistic landscapes by focusing on a rural area and on auditory semiotics. The second goal is to document anthropological knowledge in an area that is extremely rich culturally and linguistically but where language attrition and cultural loss have been greatly accelerated in the last few decades.

Reapprendre à voir: Images, Symptoms and the Media of Appearance

Emmanuel Alloa interviewed by Benediktas Vachninas Emmanuel Alloa, Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at the University of Fribourg, is one of the most active contemporary thinkers in the field of new visual studies. His areas of research include aesthetics, phenomenology, theories of image, theories of media, and the French philosophy. Professor Alloa has authored and (co)edited numerous books, of which, the most important ones are Looking through Images. A Phenomenology of Visual Media (Columbia University Press, 2021), Dynamis of the Image. Moving Images in a Global World (De Gruyter, 2020), Partages de la perspective (Fayard, 2020), Resistance of the Sensible World: An Introduction to Merleau-Ponty (Fordham University Press, 2017). He is the recipient of the Latsis Prize 2016 and the Aby Warburg Prize 2019 and currently serves as President of the German Society of Aesthetics.In 2021, Professor Alloa gave an online cycle of lectures titled Orbis Pictus. A Media Phenomenology in an Image World at Vilnius University. This year, I had the pleasure to hold an online conversation with Professor Alloa as he kindly agreed to discuss the topic of images and his project of symptomatology. The interview encompassed questions about the relation of an image with the image theories, the differences between the symptomatological approach to images and the visual semiotics, Derrida’s contribution to the problem of mediality, and the role of images in the philosophy today.This interview was taken on the 20th of June, 2023

The Semiotic Visual Analysis Of Non-Verbal Language In Hotel Advertisements

Numerous digital advertisements deviate from the use of nonverbal communication techniques. Instead of conveying information about a particular product, it provides a misleading and incorrect interpretation. Using the theory of visual semiotics, this study seeks to interpret and comprehend the forms of non-verbal language used in digital advertisements to convey information about specific hotel products. The primary objectives of this study are as follows: (1) to describe the structure of advertising components as nonverbal language in digital advertising for hotels marketing in Bali; (2) to describe the relationship between signs and their references as signifiers and signs in digital advertising for hotel marketing; and (3) to describe and provide an overview of recommendations regarding the appropriate role of meaning in digital advertising for hotel marketing. This research design employs qualitative methods for collecting data from research participants in the form of Instagram images. Nonverbal behavior observed in digital advertising, such as facial expressions, gestures, body language, movement, contact, and appearance, is the subject of study. To provide an overview of the applicability of semiotics to the practice of communicating specific information through digital advertising for hotel marketing. This study's findings include the incorporation of semiotic science variables into the design of digital advertisements for hotel marketing. To avoid misunderstandings between advertisers and their intended audiences, it is possible to establish a perfect match between the desired outcome and the intended message. This research also seeks to expand linguistics into emerging disciplines, such as the business world and commercial advertising

PHILOSOPHICAL MEANING OF KLANA UDENG MASK MOVIE

Nowadays, the traditional art of masks from Indramayu can still be found in various art forms, such as mask dance and mask puppetry. In its development, the art of mask tradition was adapted to the medium of film. When adapted into the medium of film, the mask dance performance art changes its function to become part of the educational media and part of the cultural tourism promotion in fulfilling the need to maintain the existence of the traditional art of masks to remain sustainable. This research aims to see the changes that occur and the meanings that arise from the traditional art adapted from mask dance into a movie entitled Klana Udeng Mask and identify the philosophical meanings in the movie. To comprehend the changes and meanings from the traditional art adapted from mask dance into a movie entitled Klana Udeng Mask, the researcher uses qualitative research using visual semiotics. In this research, the movie Klana Udeng Mask is interpreted with a semiotic approach from Roland Barthes. The movie Klana Udeng Mask has a philosophical meaning about gratitude and maintaining the relationship between humans and God Almighty. This philosophical meaning is evident in the opening scene of the mask dancers praying to God Almighty and the closing scene of them performing grateful praying movements to God Almighty. Changes in semiotic meaning in the Klana Udeng Mask movie affect the visual signs of the elements in the movie.

Research on Season-Themed Window Display Illustrations from the Point of Visual Semiotics

Research on Season-Themed Window Display Illustrations from the Point of Visual Semiotics

DA’WAH, RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM AND DIGITAL ARENA: THE EXPERIENCES OF STUDENT ACTIVIST’S IN UNIVERSITAS NEGERI MALANG, INDONESIA

The dynamic of da’wah among students have special characteristics in packaging da’wah content, selection of da'i and contextual trends in it. In addition, student figures of da’wah activists are representations of urban Muslims who are closely related to religious symbols, especially in the digital arena. Da’wah and religious activism in the digital arena, especially within the scope of urban youth, are the core topics of this research. This study took a sample on the Instagram posts of UKM BDM al Hikmah Universitas Negeri Malang by focusing on the da’wah narratives used. Through Bourdieu's habitus theory, Weber's theory of religious authority and visual semiotics, virtual da’wah narratives and the existence of da'i chosen by BDM al Hikmah, UM and the selection of da’wah content are two important problem formulations in this research. The findings of this study provide an overview of the position of preachers in the digital space having at least three capitals, namely social, charisma and rational. Meanwhile, in the visual semiotics review, the choice of language and discussion of da’wah that is carried out is more in accordance with the contexts and contemporary problems faced by listeners, there has been a dynamic negotiation process between the da’i and the listener

Mediayazyk videoigr: istoriya stanovleniya i semiotika kibertekstov

The article analyzes the linguistic structures of video games, their formation in a historical perspective and explication of the current semiosphere of video game cybertexts. The history of the formation of the graphic code system of video games is reconstructed. The significance of the technical factor (computing capabilities of hardware game devices) in shaping the diversity of the spectrum of video game icons is highlighted. Parallels in the visual semiotics and aesthetics of cinematic animation and video games are noted. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the procedural cluster of video game semiotics.

More Play. Your Way – Deconstructing Cosmetics Advertising. A Pragma-Linguistic Case Study

Abstract Cosmetics advertising provides a rich field of analysis in terms of pragma-linguistic and multimodal communication, as well as different degrees of persuasion and language creativity. This paper is a case study of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics through the multimodal discourse analysis framework. It employs different deconstruction tools as research variables: the AIDA persuasion pattern (attention, interest, desire, action) in ad constituents, deixis, disjunctive grammar, tropes, and elements of visual semiotics. The analysis will provide insight for master students who intend to develop a career in public relations as copywriters, helping them to understand the persuasion attainment and the potential of strategies and techniques used in advertising communication.

Covid-19 WhatsApp sticker memes as public signs in Oman

Abstract In this article, we identify a new form of public discourse that takes the shape of WhatsApp sticker memes personally created and nationally shared on WhatsApp by citizens in Oman during the Covid-19 pandemic to concomitantly act as carriers of information and as promoters of relational work. The data consist of 67 public sign stickers culled from a larger set amassed as part of an ethnographic project on Arabs and Covid-19. Drawing upon interpersonal pragmatics and visual semiotics, we examine the interplay of textual and visual modes in featured stickers, demonstrating how Omanis translated official Covid-19 instructions into three types of terse memes to facilitate communal distribution. We suggest that to encourage public cooperation, the stickers struck a culturally-imperative balance between keeping traditional norms intact while committing socially offensive acts. The article contributes to research on digital discourse by exploring sticker use as public signs in the understudied Arabic context.

VISUAL SEMIOTICS IN THE STUDY OF ART PHENOMENA: SYMBOL AND SYMPTOM

The study aims to use the approach of visual semiotics to analyse the ritual graphic signs of the Rezekne Jewish cemetery as a segment of the city in terms of "signifier" and "signified", or “expression” and “content”. The Star of David, as the dominant sign of the ritual graphics, is gradually losing the status of a sacred symbol and in a series of tombstones confirms the structure of a symptom. The paper is devoted not only to clarifying the cultural and social causes of such changes but also to the study of the mechanism of mutual transitions between symbols and symptoms, the differences in the coding of these types of signs, which has not been done in visual semiotics so far.Theoreticians have hitherto not paid due attention to the study of signs of graves as a segment of the urban environment. Moreover, the theory of visual semiotics also lacks a description of the specificity of signs in ritual graphics. Ritual graphics is an important indicator of the regularity of cultural processes in an ethnically diverse environment. When surveying the Jewish cemeteries of the Latgale region, the difference in the choice of visual graphics in the city and the countryside is obvious. In rural cemeteries that are still in use, the content and structure of verbal messages, as well as decorative graphics are traditional, therefore predictable. In city cemeteries, there is a change in graphics, deviations from tradition, its modification and obvious violations of tradition. Along with the verbal report about the deceased, the ritual graphic, on the one hand, complements it as an integral part, on the other hand, lives an independent life, because the first, and the only sign that the observer notices is the visual or non-verbal sign. In terms of information, the visual sign is noticeably more capacious, as it is older than the verbal and requires much less time for perception. The focus of the study is the divergence between the meanings of the sacred hexagram and the secular yellow star or “badge”, the causal relationships of their use and perception from the point of view of visual semiotics and cultural philosophy - phenomena of symbolization and desymbolization.

Icons and metaphors in visual communication: The relevance of Peirce’s theory of iconicity for the analysis of visual communication

In this paper we adopt Charles Sanders Peirce’s concept of iconicity to analyse pictural communication. While visual semiotics has a well-developed structural school, the concepts of visual semiotics stemming from Peirce’s pragmatic sign theory are often overlooked. The specific purpose of this study is to explore the semiotics of visual signs, exemplified by two prominent pictures of former US President Donald Trump. We argue that Peirce’s semiotic framework for iconicity in visual signs (the image, the diagram, and the metaphor) offers a useful framework for discussing how the meaning of visual signs is motivated. On this basis, we propose that Peirce’s concept of hypoicons provides us with a richer understanding of how visual signs acquire meaning and how their interpretation varies across cultural habits, and collateral experience.

The Power of Visibility: A Visual Semiotics Analysis of the 1990 Pride Celebration in South Africa

The main aim of this article is to explore the significance of celebrating Pride in South Africa, with specific reference to the 1990 inaugural gay Pride march. The first lesbian and gay Pride march was held on 13 October 1990 in Johannesburg. This was the first Pride march on the African continent and acted as both a gay Pride event and an anti-apartheid march. There were 800 people in attendance, with gay rights pioneers such as Beverley Ditsie, Justice Edwin Cameron, Donné Rundle, Hendrik Pretorius and Simon Nkoli addressing the large crowds. Two of the main aims of the Pride celebration were to publicly march in support of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in South African law, as well as to call for an end to apartheid. This 1990 Pride march thus served as a publicly visible rallying point. Over three decades of annual gay Pride marches have been observed in South Africa to encourage the just treatment of LGBTQ+ identities. Since the initial event in 1990, Pride marches have continued to grow in South Africa, with each of the nine provinces now hosting a march. Pride has also become a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community’s struggle for equality in South Africa and throughout the African continent. Even so, (Black) queer people in South Africa are still coded and marginalised in mainstream media discourses as disaffected bodies, and at worst, they are confined to the impermeable background of LGBTQ+ history. This article makes use of a qualitative visual semiotics analysis, using a non-probability purposive sample of five images from the first Pride celebration in South Africa, to explore the significance of celebrating gay Pride in our context. The findings indicate that even though things have improved significantly for the LGBTQ+ community in South Africa, this community still faces many societal issues that are a direct result of the legacy of oppression that has been perpetuated against the community throughout history.

ANALYSIS OF THE VISIT BEAUTIFUL WEST SUMATRA 2023 LOGO WORK THROUGH VISUAL SEMIOTICS APPROACH

Purpose: Visit Beautiful West Sumatra (VBWS) is an activation program for post-pandemic tourist visits which has become the starting point for the revival of tourism in West Sumatra. One of the important points in this activation program is the identity design in the form of a logo. This study aimed to analyze the Visit Beautiful West Sumatra 2023 logo work through a visual semiotics approach. Research methods: This study is qualitative using descriptive methods. Findings: The results showed that the logo has layers of expression/senses (signifier) ??and layers of meaning/perception (signified) with the spirit of synergy, collaboration, and innovation. Implications: The logo, as part of the identity, has been implemented for West Sumatra tourism stakeholders.

Visual representation of ASUU strikes in Nigeria: a semiotic analysis of cartoons in selected Nigerian newspapers

Abstract Until recently, the study of language and meaning of cartoons, the media discourses they generate, and their analysis as a creative means of exploring meaning-making processes as semiotic resources have not received much scholarly attention in Nigeria. Although cartoons that involve the use of satire and humour as visual representations of reality have gained prominence across many media platforms in Nigeria, only a few scholars have examined this from a social semiotics perspective. This has created a gap in the literature, thus creating room for a paradigm shift in the field of social semiotics. This study explores the semiotics of cartoons in selected Nigerian newspapers to examine the meaning-making resources employed in the visual representation of ASUU strikes in Nigeria. The study, therefore, examines how cartoonists manipulate symbols, signs, and other semiotic resources to convey specific meanings through visual and textual representations. The study adopts a qualitative research design; data comprising cartoons sourced from selected Vanguard Newspapers and websites are analyzed using Kress and Van Leeuwen’s visual semiotics and interpreted from the standpoints of Halliday’s Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach and O’Halloran’s position on metaphorical constructions of meaning. Here, metaphorical manipulation and representation of visual elements in the selected cartoons are interrogated. Findings from the study show the use of semiotic resources in the portrayer of reality in the context of the seemingly intractable ASUU strikes and their consequences on academic activities in Nigeria. This scholarly intervention deserves attention as it significantly contributes to the field of social semiotics through its visual representation in portraying challenges faced by the educational systems in Nigeria vis-à-vis poor government funding.

Multimodal Analysis of Covid-19 Public Advertisement by Indonesian Department of Health

In the context of verbal and visual semiotics, multimodal can be used as a tool to analyze them so that the realization of the types and levels of dialogical involvement in a text can be understood. This study is aimed at seeing multimodal appearing in COVID-19 advertisement which is analyzed to determine their ideational and linguistic content and to see how these aspects interact. The study used a qualitative approach in which the data was obtained from YouTube. The findings revealed that visual and linguistic elements exist, that symbolize the GSP process. Leads, display, primary and secondary announcements, call and visit, and tag become the specific terms in the advertisements. Material process, actors, circumstances, and goals are referred to as the linguistic components of ideational function. Keywords: visual and linguistic elements, leads, display, material process, actors, and goals

Unmasking the Inner Psyche: A Dual Approach to Understand 'Zindagi Tamsha' (Circus of Life) through Semiotics and Psychoanalysis

The current research delves into the exploration of visual semiotics and psychoanalysis within the Pakistani drama film titled "Zindagi Tamasha (Circus of Life)," directed by Sarmad Khoosat. This film intricately narrates the tale of Rahat Khwaja, a devout Muslim who inadvertently finds himself at the epicentre of public scrutiny and ridicule within his strict Muslim community. This unfortunate turn of events unfolds when a video of his dance performance at a wedding goes viral on social media. In light of this narrative, the research is guided by two primary objectives; the framework of a multi-modal approach, combining the principles of visual semiotics with the foundational theories of Sigmund Freud, particularly his Superego, Ego, and Id constructs. By merging these analytical perspectives, the study endeavours to shed light on the intricate interplay between the movie's visual narrative and the psychological dynamics at play within the central character.

Every corona is not a virus

This study is a visual semiotics analysis of Coronavirus memetic humour, aimed at ascertaining the implied meanings of selected Covid-19 related Facebook memes that stimulated virtual discourse among Nigerian netizens during the pandemic. The study adopts Visual Semiotics Theory and Encryption Theory of Humour to account for meanings derived from the presuppositional assumptions and shared sociocultural knowledge which serve as the decrypting ‘key’ to meaning. The ‘key’ activates the appropriate disambiguation and interpretation of the significations in the semiotic resources conveyed in the humorous memes. Nineteen Facebook Covid-19 related memes were selected as a representative sample for a descriptive and qualitative analysis. The analysis is coded into 11 discourse domains based on the related semiotic contents of the memes which include: preventive protocol, media reportage, religious beliefs, health sector, sociopolitical domain, socioeconomic domain, security, science, transportation, relationship and lifestyle to account for the differentials in perceptions by Nigerian netizens. Findings show that Nigerians created Coronavirus memetic humour to stimulate laughter in the rather consequential circumstances generated by the pandemic derived from the humorous contents of the image macros. In the Nigerian social context, the Coronavirus memes humorously instantiate the apprehension and helplessness of a people, and thrive to express protest, insecurity, corruption, religiosity, economic hardship and a poor health system. These, altogether combine as a myriad of the challenges facing a people who consolably devised coping strategies to trivialise the pandemic, while yearning for an inclusive government that prioritises the welfare of its citizens.

Is that lift diagram correct? A visual study of flight education literature

With a complex topic such as aerodynamics, subtle points are critical. In this work images illustrating air flow around wings and aerofoils were studied to explore misunderstandings in aerodynamics education. While these images are common in textbooks and popular science media, this study was limited to the 135 physics education articles on the topic of lift, of which 49 contained illustrations of air flow around an aerofoil or wing. These 49 cases were included for qualitative comparison using visual semiotics. It was found that 28% of images did not include upwash, and only 44% included stagnation points. For the case of 2D flow around aerofoils 30% were illustrated correctly, while for wings 75% were correct. These results excluded the seven completely incorrect illustrations where common misconceptions were presented as facts. Most illustrations of flow around an aerofoil incorrectly depicted flow around a wing.

“DARI LUCU MENUJU KOMERSIAL” SEBUAH TINJAUAN SEMIOTIKA VISUAL KOMIK IKLAN TAHI LALATS

The Tahilalats advertising comics are a differentiator from works that only aim to convey humorous messages on Instagram. An overview of advertising comics with commercial purposes is interesting because the contents of commercial advertisements for a product become a new pattern of creativity for Tahilalats creators. The object of the problem taken from the work entitled “Surprise” offers a form of negotiation between the aim of being funny and commercial advertising The Ponds Men advertisement is a promotional idea for men’s skin care products which is humorously visualized in ten comic strip panels. The series of panels is a sign structure that will be dissected in order to find the right meaning to show the persuasion message of a commercial product. The accuracy of meaning can be seen from the visualization of the text or aspects of form and context or content as part of the marking system. The marking system will be reviewed based on the sign structure of Barthes’s semiotic theory, namely lexia. The meaning analysis begins by re-reading the nine comic panels into four lexias by naming them based on the logic of meaning, not chronology. In the lexia you will find code categories used as sign dynamic rules according to Barthes based on the perception and culture of the users as interpreters including hermeneutic codes, semimic or semantic codes, symbolic codes, proairetic or action codes, and cultural codes. The code becomes the main reference showing the context in the form of a persuasive message from a Ponds Men commercial advertisement. The context of being funny can be visualized with aspects of character shape, cartoon-style expressions that are simple and simple. The supporting theory is in the form of relays and intertextuality from Julia Kristeva to review the performance of the tagging system based on caption text in the form of titles and descriptions in the Instagram Tahilalats column. In this case, it can show that the commercial message of Ponds Men’s products can be combined appropriately according to Tahilalats’ cute characterization.Keyword: advertising, comic, tahilalats, visual semiotics