Semiotics;

Concerning how signs create meanings, semiotics is a widely used approach for the analysis of various texts; from linguistics to any number of medias containing meaningful signs.
Ferdinand de Saussure divided every sign into two components; the material object - the 'signifier' and its perceptions and meanings - the 'signified' (e.g. a red traffic light means 'stop'). The combination of these = the sign. Another key theorist who developed Saussure's work to visuals was the French critic Roland Barthes, who's ideas helped progress semiotics the analysis of media texts. Barthes defined how signs 'denote' in displaying what they are, but how they 'connote' certain meanings. For example, the image of a Rolls Royce car connoted wealth, luxury and high social status to audiences.

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS TOOLS
Iconography "what do ideas, signs, objects or people stand for? what meanings are made when they are combined?" and "with what values do we associate with them?" it revolves around the idea of 'icons' - signs that are loaded with meanings, but have varying degrees of resemblance to what they represent. Roland Barthes described how we recognise icons through 'shared cultural idelogies'.

- objects are described by Barthes as 'inducers of associations of ideas' (i.e. we associate signs with certain people/places/ideas. e.g. a gun).
- settings, blurred, hard to define backgrounds usually indicate that the image is intending to symbolise rather than document, and they can also make associations with other parts of the image. A posh, cosmopolitan town connotes sophistication and class, for example.
- participants used; Aries discussed how children carry connotations of romanticisms and vulnerability, pure and natural in the face of evil and suffering, whilst Lutz and Collins saw old men as signs of peace and gentleness.
- colour; how the colours are used and their connotions and what they signify.
- framing and composition; what is included/excluded in the shot? Why? Are people composed in the centre, or to one side? What does this communicate?
- social actors; how are they represented?