Media Studies · Media Studies: Interpreting, Evaluating and Producing Complex MediaSigns, Myths and Subtext: Interpreting Overt and Implied Messages
1.2About 70 minutes
Learning goals- I can use semiotic terms (signifier, signified, denotation, connotation, myth, anchorage) to interpret media texts.
- I can identify overt and implied messages in increasingly complex texts, including messages carried by absences.
- I can write an interpretation that traces the chain sign → connotation → message, with evidence.
Words to know
semiotics
The study of signs and how they make meaning.
signifier / signified
The physical form of a sign / the concept it calls to mind.
myth (Barthes)
A cultural idea, built from connotations, that feels so natural we forget it is an idea.
polysemy
Being open to many meanings; most images are polysemic.
anchorage
Words that fix the meaning of an image, such as a caption or slogan.
ideology
A set of beliefs about how the world is or should be, often carried by implied messages.
Remember from Grade 10
In Grade 10 you separated a text's overt (stated) message from its implied (suggested) messages. You used denotation (what is literally shown) and connotation (the associations it carries), and you saw how words anchor the meaning of an image.
This lesson adds the tools that media scholars use for those ideas, called semiotics: the study of signs and how they make meaning. With them you can interpret the implied messages in more complex and difficult texts and explain how they work.
Hook: a postcard with no words
An invented tourism campaign, "Find Your Quiet", shows a single red canoe on a perfectly still northern Ontario lake at dawn. Mist rises. Pine trees line the shore. No people are visible. In small letters at the bottom: Northern Ontario. Find Your Quiet.
The overt message is simple: visit northern Ontario. But the image is saying much more. What does it suggest about the land? About who belongs there? About what a good holiday is? And what does it leave out?
Signs: signifier and signified
The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure described every sign as two parts joined together:
- the signifier: the physical form you see or hear (an image, a word, a sound, a colour, a gesture);
- the signified: the concept it calls to mind.
The key insight is that the link is learned, not natural. A maple leaf on a flag signifies Canada; a maple leaf on a school bulletin board in October signifies autumn. Context decides.
Because the link is learned, signs can carry the values of the culture that made them. That is why two audiences can read the same sign differently.
Three orders of meaning: denotation, connotation, myth
The French theorist Roland Barthes, in his book Mythologies (1957), argued that meaning builds in layers:
- Denotation: the literal content. A canoe on a lake at dawn.
- Connotation: the associations. Peace, escape, adventure, purity.
- Myth: a larger cultural idea that the connotations add up to, which feels so natural that we don't notice it is an idea at all. Canada is a vast, empty wilderness waiting to be discovered.
Myth is not the same as "a lie". Barthes used it to mean a story a culture tells about itself that hides the fact that it is a story. Interpreting implied messages often means naming the myth.
In "Find Your Quiet", the myth of empty wilderness leaves out the fact that this land is the territory of First Nations who live there today, with their own names for the lake and their own relationships to it. Naming that absence is part of interpreting the text.
More tools for implied messages
- Polysemy: most images are polysemic, open to many meanings. Media makers narrow the meaning with other signs.
- Anchorage: text that fixes the meaning of an image (a caption, a slogan). Barthes contrasted it with relay, where words and images each add new information, as in comics.
- Juxtaposition: placing two signs side by side so they comment on each other (a luxury car beside a glacier).
- Absence: what is not shown is also a choice. Ask who or what is missing.
- Codes: groups of signs that a culture understands together, such as the colour, music and lighting codes of horror.
- Ideology: a set of beliefs about how the world is or should be. Implied messages often carry ideology, like success means owning things or nature exists for our enjoyment.
Writing an interpretation
State the implied message as a full sentence, then show the chain: sign → connotation → message (or myth), with evidence.
Worked exampleLet's interpret the implied messages in "Find Your Quiet"
Interpret two implied messages in the invented "Find Your Quiet" image and explain how signs create them.
- Overt message: Visit northern Ontario. This is anchored by the words Northern Ontario. Find Your Quiet.
- Sign 1: the empty lake, no people. Connotation: solitude, escape from crowds and screens. Implied message 1: "A good holiday is one where you get away from other people."
- Sign 2: dawn light and rising mist. Connotation: newness, purity, something untouched. Combined with the lack of people, this builds the myth of untouched wilderness.
- Anchorage: the word Find suggests the quiet is waiting to be discovered by the visitor. Implied message 2: "This land is empty and waiting for you to discover it."
- Absence: no communities, roads, cottages or Indigenous presence appear, though First Nations live in and care for these lands today. The absence is what makes Implied message 2 possible.
- So what? The ad's implied messages flatter the visitor and sell peace, but they also repeat an old idea that the land was empty, an idea that has been used to ignore Indigenous peoples' rights to their territories.
Two implied messages: "a good holiday means escaping other people" and "this land is empty and waiting to be discovered." The first comes from the empty frame and quiet mood; the second comes from the myth of untouched wilderness, built by dawn light, mist, the word Find and the absence of the people who live there.
Just for funRiddle: Why do semioticians never get lost on a road trip?
Because they can read all the signs, even the yellow diamond with a picture of a moose, which every Canadian driver knows does not mean moose parking ahead.
Hands-on activitySign hunt in your kitchen
You need: three food or household packages from your kitchen (a cereal box, a juice carton, a dish-soap bottle, for example), paper and a pen.
- For each package, list three signifiers (a colour, an image, a font, a word, a shape).
- For each signifier, write its connotation.
- Write the overall implied message as a full sentence. For example: This juice is as natural as fruit picked off a tree.
- Name one myth or ideology the package relies on (for example, natural is always healthy, a good parent buys this).
- Note one absence: what the package does not show (factories, trucks, sugar content on the front).
What to look for: signifiers that are specific (a cartoon sun with a smile, not the picture), connotations that fit the signifier, implied messages written as sentences, and an absence that matters to the message.
Your turn
1Define signifier and signified.
Signifier: the physical form of a sign (image, word, sound). Signified: the concept it calls to mind.
2Why is the link between signifier and signified called learned?
Because it comes from culture and context, not nature. The same form can mean different things in different places or situations.
3Name Barthes's three orders of meaning.
Denotation, connotation, myth.
Words that fix the meaning of an image, such as a caption or slogan, narrowing its many possible meanings to one.
5Give the denotation and two connotations of a crackling fireplace in an insurance ad.
Denotation: a fire burning in a fireplace. Connotations: warmth, safety, home, family comfort.
6What is the absence in a fast-food ad that shows only fresh lettuce and tomatoes being sliced?
Sample: the frying, packaging, salt and fat; the ad leaves out the parts of the product that don't fit the message fresh and healthy.
7State an implied message from a sports-drink ad that shows an athlete training alone in the rain at night.
Sample: "Real success comes from suffering and working harder than everyone else, and this drink is part of that."
More practice: warm-up
1Who described signs as signifier plus signified?
2What does polysemic mean?
3Is a mountain at sunrise a denotation or a connotation?
Denotation (it is what is literally shown).
4Is hope a denotation or a connotation of a sunrise?
Placing two signs side by side so they comment on each other.
More practice: on your own
1Explain how the same image of a crowded subway car could signify two different things with two different captions.
With "Your commute. Every day." it suggests misery and stress (perhaps for a car ad). With "Your city. Together." it suggests community and energy (perhaps for a transit campaign). The caption anchors a polysemic image.
2In your own words, explain what Barthes meant by myth. Why is it not just a lie?
A myth is a cultural idea that feels natural, so we forget it is an idea. It isn't a lie because the signs may be true (the lake really is beautiful); the problem is the larger story they're used to tell, which hides other truths.
3Identify the ideology in an ad where a family is happiest after buying a bigger house.
Sample: consumerism or happiness comes from owning more and bigger things. The ad presents this as natural rather than as one view of a good life.
4A car ad shows the car parked alone on a glacier. Use juxtaposition to explain one implied message.
Placing a car beside an untouched glacier links the car to purity, power and adventure, implying this car takes you places others can't. It also hides the tension between cars and melting glaciers (an absence).
5Why might two Canadians read "Find Your Quiet" differently?
Their experience and identity shape the signs. A city resident may read peaceful escape; a member of a First Nation whose territory is shown may notice the absence of their community and read it as erasing them.
Challenge
1Choose one sign in a national flag, sports logo or holiday decoration and trace it through all three of Barthes's orders.
Sample (a poppy pin in November): Denotation: a small red flower pin. Connotation: remembrance, sacrifice, respect. Myth: the nation is a family that honours those who served. Strong answers note that myths can unite people and also simplify history.
2Write a paragraph interpreting the implied message of an invented phone ad: a teen alone in her room is laughing while video-chatting with friends; the slogan reads Never Alone. Use at least three semiotic terms.
Sample: The denotation is a teen alone in her room, but her laughter and the glowing screen connote connection and joy. The slogan anchors the image, so the implied message becomes "With this phone you will never be lonely." The ad relies on a myth that technology solves loneliness, and its absence of in-person friends suggests that screen connection is enough.
3Explain how a creator could use semiotics to make an implied message that challenges the myth in "Find Your Quiet".
Sample: keep the beautiful lake but add a sign of a living community, such as a dock with a family from the local First Nation and the lake's name in their language, with the caption Welcome to our home. This changes the myth from empty wilderness to a homeland you visit as a guest, using presence instead of absence and new anchorage.
Quiz
1. In semiotics, the signified is:
2. Which is a connotation of a lone wolf in a cologne ad?
3. Barthes used myth to mean:
4. A caption that fixes an image's meaning is an example of:
5. Why should you note absences when interpreting a media text?
6. Which is the best statement of an implied message?
What this lesson teaches: expectation 1.2: interpreting increasingly complex media texts to identify and interpret overt and implied messages. Students learn basic semiotics (Saussure's signifier and signified, Barthes's denotation, connotation and myth, anchorage) and practise noticing absences.
How to help at home:
- Pick a package in the kitchen and play signifier, connotation, message together.
- When you see a tourism or real-estate ad, ask "Who's missing from this picture?"
- Accept more than one interpretation if it is supported with evidence.
Common difficulties:
- Mixing up denotation and connotation. Denotation is what a camera recorded; connotation is what it makes you think of.
- Implied messages written as one word. Ask for a sentence.
- Treating myth as "lie". A myth can use true images to tell a one-sided story.
Facts used: Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist; Roland Barthes was a French theorist whose book Mythologies was published in 1957. The "Find Your Quiet" campaign is invented.