Tag: Semiotics

Semiotics: myths, #BlackLivesMatter & #AllLivesMatter

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Intro to Semiotics Part 2: Sign, Myth and #AllLivesMatter

I’m still on my semiotics tip and discovered this interesting video about myths, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and the loathsome #AllLivesMatter. I was wary of how both hashtags would be described but they went how I’d hoped in such a short video. I’ve not heard or read about either one described from a semiotic perspective and it’s good to know the arbitrariness carries such weight in #AllLivesMatter.

As Electric Didact says when quoting semiotician Roland Barthes, “myth freezes or immobilises intention.” This considers the notion that while Black Lives Matter is a movement, All Lives Matter isn’t.

Watch the video below and leave a comment with your thoughts on the semiotics angle.

A Quick Lesson in Semiotics

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Semiotics: the study of signs

Signs and symbols are all around us and their meanings carry much more than we think. Semiotics analyses sign processes and their relationship with each other and the world that uses them. It has a major influence on disciplines such as literature, graphic design, and communication. It is not the same as semiology, which is regarded as a subset of semiotics, introduced by Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure.

In the video below, Matt Dewey discusses a brief overview of semiotics and how it all started. The discipline started in Europe but there was a split from semiology as Charles Sanders Peirce became the man behind what we know today.