Social Semiotics

• Paragraph 1: Provide a basic introduction to the methodology. What is it? Who discovered it? Why is it important?
• Social semiotics basically the study of unnoticed things. Social semiotics draws on qualitative analysis of records of "meaning making" a few examples would be artifacts, texts, or transcripts. the purpose of this analysis is to create meaning making. Social semiotics focuses on spreading the studies of media and the modes of communication that people use to demonstrate their understanding of the world and to create stronger relationships with others. This concept was created by Michael Halliday. Social semiotics is important because it gives context and a wider understanding of visual texts and the relationship between texts and to the community or the environment that the texts were created in. Social semiotics focuses on meanings in context rather than things associated with abstract. 
• Paragraph 2: What are some of the rules associated with the methodology? What do photos at the top mean (at the bottom, to the left, to the right etc.)
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• There are three parts to social semiotics that allows us to be able to break down each part of social semiotics more effectively. The first part os representational, which refers to the real works either abstract of concrete, this category can be broken into two more parts narrative and conceptual. Narrative examines concrete events within an image and conceptual provides the framework for classification. The second part of social semiotics is interactive meaning which is broken down into three aspects of visual material, contact, distance and point of view. The third part of social semiotics is compositional aspects which includes information value, framing, salience and modality.  
• Paragraph 3: Provide 2 images and analyze them through the Social Semiotics method.

Contextual information: 

General: a group of people behind a sign that has the name of the city they are in. 

photographer: some random person on the street

Year: 2022

Representational: the image is representing a family traveling together. when first viewing the image one only sees the sign then the people behind it. Once looking at the image a little longer one would notice that they are standing in the middle of the town square. 

Interactive meaning: this picture is to remind its audience about the good times the family is having and to hopefully encourage the viewer to think about a time with their family. 

Compositional: the viewer is supposed to feel welcomed and get a sense of happiness from this photo. 

Context: 

general: photo taken of procedure supplies for a certain medical procedure. 

photographer: me 

year: 2022

representational: the image is supposed to show the viewer how to set up for a medical procedure. If the viewer looks closer there is notes on the trey the show what needs to be done to set up the medical supply trey correctly. 

interactive: this is supposed to be an image that shows the viewer how to replicate it. This image is very interactive. 

compositional: the viewer is looking down at the image and trying to replicate it. the supplies are framed together and organized in a certain way on the trey. 

Zolyan. (2019). General sociolinguistics, social semiotics and semiotics of culture - ex pluribus     unum? Forty years after Language as Social Semiotic. Sign Systems Studies, 47(3-4), 400–       419. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2019.47.3-4.03

Visual social semiotics. Theories of Visual Communication. (2016, September 2). Retrieved May 29, 2022, from https://theoriesofviscomblog.wordpress.com/visual-social-semiotics/