The concept of semeotic analysis

Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark. The newspaper, supported by other “pro-democracy” activists in the Western world, described the publication of what Muslims all over the world found to be offensive – as freedom of expression.

What is apparent is that image reading can be subjective. Images by their very nature are polysemous, meaning that they have the ability to generate more than a single meaning. As a result, it has become more and more essential for scholars and even ordinary readers to use theories associated with visual semiotics as a way to limit the interpretive openness of pictorial texts.
Visual semiotics is the study of signs in images. In simplified terms, visual semiotics implies that meaning in pictorial compositions may be unveiled by identifying the signs that make them up.

In other words, it is possible to use texts to describe the meaning and function of an image, based on the signs found within it.
The use of pictorial grammar, which is descriptive language, for image analysis therefore becomes fundamental, particularly given that images have no unique visual metalanguage and require language as an instrument for pictorial analysis.

The study of signs has been derived from the work of three principal scholars – Ferdinard de Saussure, Roland Barthes and Charles Sanders Peirce. Visual semiotics identifies the sign as the smallest known variable. Based on the works of Peirce, the sign can be identified through its three main characteristics.
Firstly, it must be physically perceptible, meaning that it must in some degree be visible, audible or tangible or one must be able to smell or taste it.

Secondly, it should refer to something and therefore it has a representative character.
Lastly, because it is a representation of something else, it has to have an interpretative character.
There are three types of signs, namely iconic, indexical and symbolic. An iconic sign resembles the object it represents in some way, it looks or sounds like it. An example of this is the orange.
An indexical sign, such as smoke representing a fire, offers a direct link between it and its object. Symbols are signs with no logical connection to the meaning. They rely exclusively on the reader having learned the connection between the sign and its meaning.

For example, unless one knows that when a “c”, an “a”and an “r” are put together in that order, one may not know that the signs refer to a motor vehicle. The word “sign” is in fact very much interlinked with visual communication.

The German Zeichen, meaning sign, gives us zeichnen for the verb to draw, that is, to make signs” Similar connections can be seen for example, in the Italian language.
The Italian word isegno, meaning drawing or design and disegnatore, a word used to define a designer are both derived from segno, the word meaning “sign”.
Similarly, “design” the word used in the English language to define a process or product of human creativity also has within it the word “sign”.

It can therefore be determined that the sign is an essential part of a visual communication and one that can be analysed within the context and cultural background in which it was created.
Semiotics provides theoretical and methodological frameworks for isolating and explaining the levels of meaning, both of language as text and the image as pictorial text. But using semiotics simply as a way to explain what is found within the margins of an image misses the point.

According to Barthes, identifying what is represented in a pictorial composition is not enough. There are two layers of meaning. The first answers the question, “Who or what is depicted in the composition?”

The second and more complex layer manifesting in an image in semiotics is the connotation, the latent meaning of the image that is less obvious and subtextual.
It attempts to answer the question, “What ideas and values are expressed through what is represented and through the way in which it is represented?”

Barthes says it is largely arbitrary and is specific to one culture. And here is where the Danish newspaper lost it.
By failing to understand the Muslim culture and what it stands for, it willfully disrespected a whole religion and hid behind the guise of freedom of expression.

There is need for understanding of cultures that images are produced for so as to avoid offending, insulting or disrespecting members of that society.
In Zimbabwe where certain gestures have political connotations and colours are used to describe soccer teams, it is imperative that due care is taken when publishing visuals that may contain ambiguous messages.

The use of visual semiotics is vital in analysing visual communication such as those pictures appearing in newspapers.
The newspapers should not take advantage of the lack of understanding of pictorial language by openly supporting and condemning persons or organizations while pretending to be fair.