2. What
is Roland Barthes
Theory?
According to Barthes, anything in culture
can be a sign and send a specific
message. In his Mythologies Barthes
describes some methods of
“deciphering” these messages.
3. Symbolic code
Symbol – an image which has come to
also represent something else.
For example
A heart represents love/passion so the shape
of the heart symbolized love over time.
A cross represents Christianity and Religion
In Drizzee Rascals dream much of the video
these men are wearing hoodies, and the
symbolism of the hoodie is criminal youth &
rebels of the video
4. Proairetic codes
What are proairetic codes – are elements of media products which signify that something is
going to happen as a result
In a film when a character pulls out a gun from their pocket,
that would be a pro heretic code which would signifiy to the
audience that he is going to shoot someone/chaos will ensue
5. Semantic codes
What is semantic code?
They are parts of a media
product that we understand
have a hidden meaning there
is a connotation to them we
understand.
For example, in a horror movies there are typically lots of the
colour reds & Blacks (which we can see) because we can
understand those colours signified blood/danger/darkness/mystery
In this tied advert you
will see that this lady is
smiling & is hugging
the tied box so this
acts as a semantic
code to tell the
audience that she
loves this
product telling us it’s a
great product & we will
also love it
6. Hermeneutic/
Enigma codes
Enigma – means mystery & mysterious
part of a media text that will engage an
audience in some way that will hook them
in & that will make them want to read the
full article or read/watch the full
advert/film.
An example of this is on the front cover.
Right at the very bottom corner there is some
text (which is circled) and it shows the page
numbers to go to now this acts as a
hermeneutic code because first of all the
audience is thinking well what does this
mean for me in the world its election what
effect is it going to have, I must open the
paper & read to find out more and urgently Pg 1-2
