In our modern society, where mass media (print, tv, film, advertising, etc) has become such a prevelant part of our culture, we cannot escape the flood of signs and symbols. We are bombarded on a daily basis with signs and symbols that “mean” something else. Most of the time, we do not give these signs/symbols a second though; we, generally, automatically assign the learned meaning to those signs or symbols.

Semiotics is the study of meaning based on theories of signs and symbols. Charles Peirce argues that there are three different types of signs based on their relationships with the objects they “portray”. Symbolic signs show no resemblance to the objects they reference. Iconic Signs have a perceived resemblance with the objects they portray. Indexical signs are directly connected with their referents.

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