A First Look at Communication Theory (6th edition)

Connotation
Barthes’s label for the ideological baggage that signs carry with them.
Sign
The combination of a signifier and a signified.
Signifier
The actual image of a sign.
Signified
The meaning ascribed to a sign.
Taxonomy
A form of structural analysis that seeks to define and classify the features of all
semiotic systems.
Mythologies
Written by Barthes, this book contains semiotic analyses of a wide variety of visual
signs, particularly those perpetuating dominant societal values.
Mythic or Connotative System
A second-order semiological system built off of a preexisting sign system. Within mythic
systems, the sign of the first system becomes the signifier of the second.
Kyong Kim
A communication scholar from Mt. Vernon Nazarene College and author of a recent
book that applies semiotics to media theory.
Anne Norton and Douglas Kellner
University of Pennsylvania political scientist and UCLA media scholar (formerly from the
University of Texas at Austin), respectively, who expand Barthes’s semiotic approach to
account for how signs may subvert the status quo.
Dick Hebdige
The director of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at the University of California,
Santa Barbara, who argues that countercultural semiotic activity at first subverts but is
eventually co-opted by mainstream society.
Principal Changes
In this edition, Griffin has expanded his discussion of the yellow ribbons displayed in
support of US troops fighting in Iraq as well as edited the chapter for clarity, and updated the
Second Look section.
Suggestions for Discussion
Clarifying Barthes’s analysis
Like Griffin’s treatment of CMM, this chapter epitomizes the inherent limitations of
concise summaries of the complex, constantly evolving theories of wide-ranging thinkers. In
order to fill in key gaps in your students’ understanding, you may need to bring additional
material to class. In particular, we would recommend providing a bit more of the text of
Barthes’s analysis of wrestling. To vivify Barthes’s claim that mythic signs reinforce the
dominant values of their culture, quote at length from pages 21-23 of “The World of
Wrestling,” where Barthes explains the way in which the spectacle of wrestling communicates
the concept of “justice” to the audience. Be sure your students understand how justice is
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