Social Semiotics
"Social semiotics is a social theory about meaning and meaning-making in (inter-) action; it examines the varieties of ways
texts can be made" (Gualberto and Kress 2018). Different channels for connections, whether they be visual, audible, or verbal, are different modes of social semiotics. Social semiotics analyzes how we communicate with each other through a variety of methods, and how they all contribute to social interactions. Gunther Kress was one of the pioneers of social semiotics and is acknowledged for his great contribution to the development of the theory (Adami et al 2022). Social semiotics are important because they dissect the intersectional components of our communication and connection. "In social semiotics, a text is seen as a composition of interconnected signs: a sign-complex designed with signs in
different modes...It gains its completeness from the occasions of its social use and making. A text is the designer’s apt
representation of her or his attempt to meet the rhetor’s interest"(Gualberto and Kress 2018).
Social semiotics is defined by interpretation of what is being said or seen. "In social
semiotics, (success in) communication is defined by interpretation, that is, as the process of engagement by a person with
a prompt, in which that person as interpreter selects from the prompt that to which he or she gives attention, regarding it
as salient, and interprets that in the light of her or his interests" (Gualberto and Kress 2018). Knowing your audience, for say a presentation, changes the way you would communicate or format information and visuals so they are interpreted correctly. There is also the use of "the
semiotic affordances of horizontal and vertical angle" (Gualberto and Kress 2018). The different positions of a photo or visual give different interpretations and have different meanings. "In effect, the photo, casually though carefully and deliberately made, probably with the camera of the mobile
phone, and as such in the genre of memento, has now taken on the function of a meta-form: a means of reflection on a
larger social issue" (Gualberto and Kress 2018).
The two image I chose to analyze are both photos of Mount Hood in Oregon. I intentionally chose one horizontal and one vertical photo to look at how they communicate differently, and affect the over interpretation. In the horizontal photo Mount Hood shares the focus with the farm land below and the surrounding area. This angle shows the community around Mount Hood, and the beautiful backdrop they have. The vertical photo however, has Mount Hood more as the main focal point and shows off the beauty of the mountain itself. This photo also shows the mountain as a more secluded place with great water ways. The first photo communicates that Mount Hood would be a gorgeous place to live, and there is already a community present. The second photo shows how cool of a location Hood River is to visit and potentially hike in. Even though both these photos are of the same mountain, their composition communicates different aspects of the location.
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Resources:
Gualberto, C. & Kress, G. (forthcoming, 2018) ‘Social Semiotics’, chapter in the International Encyclopedia of
Media Literacy, edited by Renee Hobbs and Paul Mihailidis, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
Adami, E., Diamantopoulou, S. and Lim, F.V. (2022) ‘Design in Gunther Kress’s social semiotics’.
London Review of Education, 20 (1), 41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/LRE.20.1.41.
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