Social Semiotics: What You See and What It Means

According to the Glossary of Multimodal Terms, social semiotics can be described as the approach to communication that works to understand how people communicate through various different means in a  social setting. It is a study not just of language but of the meaning being made and why such meanings are derived from actions, words, symbols, and icons. The discovery of social semiotics is often attributed to Michael Halliday from his 1978 book, "Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning." In this methodology, language and communication are not looked at as being defined by a set of rules or standards, but rather by how they impact and are used in everyday life. This is incredibly important because it assigns value to not just the words and composition of those words as a language, but it also serves to explain the meaning derived from other instantiations that occur in real life interactions within a social setting. This reminded me a lot of several sayings I heard a lot growing up, such as "words mean things" and "its not what you said but how you said it." I believe the latter of the two is a perfect example of how language can provide the means to say something but the delivery and all of the other factors in how it is said serve to provide a lot of meaning. 

There are many rules associated with the methodology. According to Harrison's 2003 article in Technical Communications, a few of those rules are that semioticians believe that all people see the world through signs, the meaning of signs is created by people and doesn't exist separately from them, and semiotic systems provide people with many options for gathering meaning (Harrison, 48). In Stoian's 2015 article, image composition is addressed by discussing the meaning behind where items lie in the composition. Information on the left is considered to be known information, information on the right tends to be new information. Information on top is the ideal information and when presented at the bottom, it is the real and practical information. The center is typically reserved for "nucleus information" where the meaning can be encompassing or a tie-in for the other pieces of information. 

In the above image from BBC news, a man stands in a city square, using a loudspeaker to share information to those around him. In the case of this photo, he is preaching religion to the people of Uganda. 

Representational: As a narrative representational image, it depicts a man at eye level to give the viewer the feel of being a member in the crowd of a passer-by on the street. It calls the same attention to the photo that might be achieved from being present. 

Interactive Meaning: In this photo, the viewer sees the person speaking from a close personal distance and from an oblique angle, creating a connection without the intimacy of a frontal view in a headshot. This angle gives equal power to the person viewing and the person being viewed. 

Compositional: The focus is on the man speaking focusing the attention of the reader. However, it is just wide enough to see people smiling in the background, sending an interpretation of acceptance. By placing the speaker in the center, he becomes the nucleus of the photo and the background is automatically subservient. 

In another BBC news article photo, a destroyed building in Ukraine still smolders under the constant threat of invading Russian forces. 

Representational: As what I believe to be a conceptual image, the viewer is meant to draw on the destruction as a representation of the ongoing trouble in Ukraine. It serves to represent any home or building and gives the viewer pause by conjuring an idea of "it could be any building I see every day."

Interactive Meaning: In this photo, the viewer sees the building from a birds eye view. This takes away any idea of grandeur and makes the building seem small or destroyed and further drives home the vulnerability of these large structures under the invasion of Russian forces. 

Compositional: I believe there is a lot of meaning behind how this photo was framed. The top of the photo is whitewashed in smoke, showing the value of what is going on. It gives the viewer the idea that everything beyond the photo is awash in smoke. However, the reality of the photo is the nucleus and where the eye focuses. In the center of the frame is the main damage caused by Russian forces. It drives home the importance of what the viewer is seeing. 

Harrison, C. (2003). Visual social semiotics: Understanding how still images make meaning. Technical communication, 50(1), 46-60

Stoian, Claudia. (2015). Analysing Images: A Social Semiotic Perspective. Buletinul Ştiinţific al Universităţii „Politehnica” din Timişoara, Seria Limbi moderne. 14.