This document provides an in-depth semiotic analysis of a Moroccan television advertisement for a garlic cube product called "Douima D-knor". The analysis examines various elements of the ad through a semiotic lens, looking at both denotative and connotative meanings. Key aspects analyzed include the use of color, symbols like the question mark, stereotypical portrayals of gender, and how the ad associates the product with ideas of love, happiness and family success through a husband kissing his wife. The analysis seeks to understand how Moroccans might interpret various images and signs in the ad based on cultural context.

1. How to Study Media
PROF. MADANI/HAKIM/BENNIS
FLDM, USMBA, FEZ
Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University
Faculty of letters and Human Sciences Dhar El-Mehraz
Fes.
Introduction to Media Studies
Hours/Week: 2:00
Semester 4
Cycle : Fundamental BA
Filière: English Studies Spring Session

2. Introduction
 One does not really study the media just by, for example, reading magazines and
talking generally about their style or about the sort of articles that are in them.
Nor is it sufficient only to seek out facts such as newspaper circulation figures, or
information about how television is run.
 Three major aspects of what we loosely call 'the media' are INSTITUTIONS, TEXTS
and AUDIENCES.
 Many commentators are interested in how the media affect our understanding of
the world. This involves looking at more than just texts. It also involves taking
different approaches to description and analysis, which helps make sense of how
the media are part of our lifestyles, our beliefs and even our social relationships.

3. Approaches to Study Media
PROCESS
 The aspects of the media one may look at are:
 The institutions (organizations) that own, run and finance the media
 The production systems that put together the material
 The conditions under which media material is put together
 The texts (or products, or materials) that are produced
 The representations (or versions of subject matter) that are in the texts
 The meanings that are in the representations, or in our minds, or circulating in society
 the audiences that make sense of the product
 the context in which the material is received and understood
A. MEDIA STUDIES: SOME KEY POINTS

4. MEDIA RESEARCH:
INVESTIGATION
 In general, investigative approaches for all subjects involve kinds of:
 Description of the features of your object of study
 Analysis of such features
 Application of ideas and of analytical approaches
 Interpretation of what one takes from analysis and description.
 In media this could be, for example, about how a newspaper is produced, how the
internet operates, how people watch television, how magazines represent people
with disabilities?!!!!!!!!

5. INVESTIGATION
 Investigation focuses on the how and the why. That is, for example:
 why do things happen the way that they do?
 how does the audience make sense of what
 why do we have the kinds of production it reads and sees?
 Systems and product that we do?
 why does it make a particular kind of sense
 how do these systems work? of this material?

6. REPETITION AND SIGNIFICANCE
 One simple fact that may help your investigations is that anything that is repeated
may well be significant. In a sense, all study and research is looking for patterns of
repetition. What this means is that if you are describing ownership of the media,
and this seems to repeat some characteristics across most of the media, then
those characteristics are significant in some way.
 To take another fairly obvious example, if you study magazines for women in a
certain age band and find that certain topics are repeated again and again, then
these topics must be more significant than those that are not repeated.

7. MEDIA TEXTS AND MEANINGS
 Studying the media involves looking for MESSAGES and MEANINGS in the material,
given the fact that meanings come through all forms of communication, not only
words.
 It is arguable that msgs come more powerfully through pictures because these are
more like real life (iconic) than words are (symbolic).
 =That is to say, looking at a picture of a person is quite like looking at the real person,
whereas looking at a set of words describing that person is not the same thing at all. It
is this illusion of 'being like' that is important, and that makes IMAGE ANALYSIS
important.
 A great deal of media material is pictorial nowadays: comics, television, film. Even
newspapers are very visual if you think about the graphic qualities of layout and the
number of photographs that fill the popular tabloids. You can check this emphasis on
pictures by using the CONTENT ANALYSIS method of study

8. METHODS OF STUDY
Textual Analysis:
 TA stands for a range of specific analytical approaches such as semiotic analysis,
image analysis, content analysis, narrative analysis and genre analysis.
 They try to describe and make sense of certain features of a text.
 They make claims that these features (such as signs or CONVENTIONS) actually do exist.
 All of them lead to ideas about meanings in the text, ideas about how audiences make
meanings out of reading texts, suggest something about how and why texts are
produced.
 So, textual analysis refers in general to the taking apart of a text. It tends to look for
structures and patterns of one kind or another in the text. It treats all media material,
visual or otherwise, as a kind of 'book', with meanings to be read into it

9. Textual Analysis:
 SEMIOTICS, with its foundation of signs and codes, is an example of such a system. It is important
to point out now that you will find that there is a close relationship between concepts such as
'text', 'sign', 'structure', 'narrative', 'code' and 'convention'. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS, STRUCTURAL
ANALYSIS, SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS all involve understanding of similar concepts, and are all ways of
getting to the same thing: how the text is put together, how we read meanings into it.
 Semiotics concentrates on the building blocks of the text to get to meanings - the words or the
elements within a picture - what it calls signs.
 Structuralism looks for organizing principles and at whole sections of text for example, chunks of
narrative, or the mise en scene (composition) of a film shot. What you should remember is that
media study is not just about texts. We tend to do a lot with texts because we can get at them. But
there are dangers in, for example, assuming too much about institution or audience from reading
a text.

10. Semiotic Analysis:
 This approach assumes that all texts are made up from sets of signs, and that
these signs have meanings attached to them.
 The point is that the meanings of signs (or combinations of signs) is not fixed. So
semiotic analysis is not like using a theorem or a formula to work out a problem of
meaning. It is also the case that some meanings are more literal, and some are
more ambivalent and cultural.
 E.g. The word 'cat', therefore, may mean the creature we call a cat; it may also
mean ideas about 'cat-ness' - perhaps about the independent nature of the cat or
about the furry warmth of a cat. The first meaning is labelled denotative, the
second one is connotative.

11. Semiotic Analysis 2 :
As Taylor and Willis (1999) say, 'a knowledge about the VALUES and beliefs of a particular culture is
necessary if connotative readings of signs are to be successfully arrived at'. Indeed, one could also say
that such readings (meanings) are ideological - they are about the particular view of the world held by
that culture.
 The process of suggesting meaning through signs is a process of signification.
 A semiotician would look at the following aspects:
 Denotation - picture elements that you describe factually and objectively. Meanings about things
that are referred to from a material world, e.g. this is an image of a male kicking a round leather
ball; the ball is in the foreground of the image.
 Connotation - meanings from those elements. Meanings from a world of ideas, e.g. this image
creates a meaning of aggression because the ball and the foot seem to be kicking into the face of
the viewer of the picture.
 Anchorage - picture elements that really pin down meaning, e.g. this is an image of X taking a
penalty kick (and we know this because it says so in the caption to the photo).

12. Semiotic Analysis 3:
 Semiotic analysis may be used on word texts. It might recognize the repetition of
certain kinds of word in a story that produce a certain kind of impression or
feeling in the reader.
 It also works on visual texts and those many texts, like magazine adverts, that
combine words and images.
 It has also tended to be used for the decoding of certain kinds of meaning - those
that are ideological in nature, that are about the major beliefs and values that
dominate the way we think about relationships, about social institutions, about the
way we believe society should operate.

13. Structural Analysis
 This method involves looking at how the text is organized and at what this may
tell us. The patterns of organization may be within one image or in a sequence of
pictures, within a short piece of writing or within a whole story.
 All media, can be analyzed for their structures. The proposition is that all texts
have an underlying system of elements and rules that helps produce the meaning
of a text.
 Genres would be a particularly recognizable example of this. This principle of
structure has caused critics to look for basic elements in a text - types of character
or patterns of storyline - and then look for principles by which these are put
together.

14. SAMPLE EXAMPLE !!!!!!!!!!
 For example, it seems attractive to suppose that many stories use the element of
the Villain' character, from the witch in Hansel and Gretel to those various Asian,
East European and Russian villains in Bond stories.
 The trouble is that the meaning of villain is not necessarily 'written into' the
structure of the text. It is also constructed in the head of the reader/viewer.
 With a given story, different cultures might read different characters as villains. So
they would not see the text as being structured in quite the same way.
 But at this point it is sufficient to take on two main kinds of structure: the structure
of opposites in a story; the structure of narrative, which affects things like building
to the climax of a story.

15. VISUAL MEDIA: ANALYSIS OF BINARY
OPPOSITIONS
 BINARY OPPOSITIONS are opposing concepts that one reads into the text, usually
through contrasting sets of words or of pictures.
 The most basic oppositions are to do with good and evil, or with male and female. .
Males are tough, hard, and reasonable; females are pliant, soft, and emotional.
 Villains are filmed in shadows, in dark clothes, with unshaven faces; heroes are clean-cut,
in pale clothes, in light.
 E.g. https://youtu.be/0EEdL1RGVZU?t=3672
 Many texts do have this structure built into them. Many stories are based on conflict,
and the easiest conflict to set up is that between two people or two views

16. Using semiotics to decode an image

17. Semiotic Analysis: The Case of
Garlic CUBE FROM 2M TV
 From a semiotic perspective, there are a number of elements that could be deconstructed. However, the
reading will look only at elements which seem to be the richest in symbolism, metaphor, and connotation.
 Reading ads for meaning is carried out at two main levels: denotative and connotative. In the TV ad of
‘Douima d-knor’, the denotative meaning is self-contained in the syntagms or shots of the whole ad text.
In this sense, each shot is taken as a signifier and has an idiosyncratic meaning as signified, that the iconic
representation of the woman denotes a real woman, garlic cube denotes a real food product, and kitchen
denotes a real cooking place. We move to a second level of signification, the connotative function, when
we try to match the meaning of how Moroccans perceive such images and what interpretations they
assign to them. The portrayal of man and woman in this TV ad (shot 14, 15) is an example of a
stereotypical image of a how a typical Moroccan man and woman should be conceived of.
Sadik., M. A. (2016). Visual semiotics and interpretation in the Moroccan television advertisements: the case of ‘garlic cube knor’ and
‘prince biscuit’. Vol. 1, No 2. Retrieved from https://revues.imist.ma/index.php?journal=SLC&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=6267

18. Semiotic Analysis: The Case of Garlic CUBE
FROM 2M TV
 Generally, the commercial is a sequence of more than sixteen shots presenting a
food product called ‘Douima D-knor’ in a very refined setting, a modern kitchen.
The TV ad targets women viewer and associates the purchase of the product with
success, happiness, and love.
 Trying to create suspense, the ad started with an image of ‘question mark’
accompanied by catchy music so as to draw the attention of the viewer. We
understand that question mark as an indexical cue of questioning and inquiry.
This image goes in parallel with the female voiceover saying an enigma: ‘Very
small, delicious, and it is not a cube of tastiness. Guess what?’ (Trans mine).
 This linguistic codification is directive, informational, and speculative. It serves as a
means to delimit the reader’s making sense of the ad.

19. Semiotic Analysis: The Case of Garlic CUBE
FROM 2M TV
 Such a food product (Garlic cube) is advertised not as a commodity; but for what
it can do for her relationship with men and the family. In terms of appearance and
character, she is a beautiful, attractive, young, chic, slim, and cute woman in
appearance. Therefore, the iconic nature of the sign and the denotative meaning
are clear. However, the connotative and mythic meanings need more inspection.
The iconic image of the woman signifies the stereotypical image of the modern
Moroccan woman. The visual code represents gender in which the female takes on
the active role. So, one would say that woman is in complete control of the
situation.
Sadik., M. A. (2016). Visual semiotics and interpretation in the Moroccan television advertisements: the case of ‘garlic cube knor’ and
‘prince biscuit’. Vol. 1, No 2. Retrieved from https://revues.imist.ma/index.php?journal=SLC&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=6267

20. Semiotic Analysis: The Case of Garlic CUBE
FROM 2M TV
 The next long shot represents a typical modern woman. Feminists have pointed out
that ads addressed to woman define woman in terms of the commodity.
 In addition, one would also notice the colour codes emerging. The prevalent colour is
green and has connotations in Moroccan culture such as vivacity, life and vitality which
are all linked with the success associated with the product.
 At times, when we start looking at the colour connotations, a syntagmatic pattern
springs out. The woman clothes are in complete symbiotic relation with everything in
the kitchen. Equally important, the colours of legumes are all found in her
multicoloured dress. Then, the camera moves in to a close-up shot of the woman’s face
making a nonverbal cue (finger sign) that can be interpreted as signifying or standing
for the product. At the same time, the voiceover uttered the sentence ‘qdit hakda’
(having this volume).
Sadik., M. A. (2016). Visual semiotics and interpretation in the Moroccan television advertisements: the case of ‘garlic cube knor’ and
‘prince biscuit’. Vol. 1, No 2. Retrieved from https://revues.imist.ma/index.php?journal=SLC&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=6267

21. Semiotic Analysis: The Case of Garlic CUBE
FROM 2M TV
 Another significant component of the garlic cube product (shot 13, 14, and 15) is
that it generates meaning of love, happiness, security, and satisfaction. Evidently,
the iconic representation of the man and woman denotes a mere relationship of
husband and wife. Yet; the connotation goes further than that. The use of the
personalized format is well exploited by the iconographic power of the image.
Shot 14 illustrates the association between the success of product, the happiness
of the couple, and the comment of the verbal cue: ‘A bit of love, a bit of
competence, and the garlic cube of Knor, and all to Knor’. The aforementioned
values generated by the ad are clearly manifested in shot 15 where the husband is
kissing his wife as result of his delight and satisfaction with her appetizing meal.
Sadik., M. A. (2016). Visual semiotics and interpretation in the Moroccan television advertisements: the case of ‘garlic cube knor’ and
‘prince biscuit’. Vol. 1, No 2. Retrieved from https://revues.imist.ma/index.php?journal=SLC&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=6267

22. Other Methods
 Content Analysis (of Text) tries to quantify exactly the amount and nature of material.
 Image Analysis (of Text): breaks into the meaning of visual material through careful
description of where the camera is placed, of technical and other devices that contribute to
the treatment of the image, and through careful observation of elements of image content
to one another.
 Use of Questionnaires (for Audience) to examine audience knowledge, attitude, and
opinion.
 In-depth Interviews (for Institutions or Audience)
 Focus Groups (for Audience/Marketing) to examine audience knowledge, attitude, and
opinion of cross section of the audience at one time.
 Audience Analysis/Ethnographic Surveys INVOLVES surveys discussions wih the audience at
time and point of media consumption.

23. Conclusion
 Media Studies is the critical/cultural analysis of all media formats and the role they play
in society. These media include print, news, entertainment, television, video games,
movies, etc. It’s a very wide net and intersects with many fields like communication,
ethnic studies, women and gender studies, religious studies.
 Media is undoubtedly considered the mirror of the society’s culture, in that it influences
and is influenced by the cultural values of the community. Meda is a powerful tool that
promotes social and cultural change in the society.
 So, an authentic scientific research to investigate the issue of television, radio; internet
requires more data and more time so as to meet the three most commonly known
criteria for a good research, namely validity, reliability, and objectivity.