Conduct, and critically discuss the results of, a small-scale survey investigating the recognition of popular visual signs.
Guidance
For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.
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What Key Features Do I Look For?
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Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here.
Advice for this particular assignment: Your sample must be of 40 people, equally divided between males and females and between those under 25 and those over 35, so that you can compare these subsets. Thus: 20 will be male, 10 of these being under 25 and 10 being over 35; 20 will be female, 10 of these being under 25 and 10 being over 35. The minimum age limit is 16 and the maximum is 65. You must use the images provided but if you wish you may add a few more at the end. You need to record the age-group, sex and the country of origin of each participant, but keep them anonymous, of course. You will find it useful to start by trying to identify the images yourself (answers are here).
You might find it useful to use Facebook to invite participants but it would be difficult to conduct this particular survey online: who could resist Googling for the answers! In a face-to-face situation you may of course refer people to the page showing the images (this is probably better than printing them out). Ask them to identify each image in writing using the numbers provided (afterwards you can check against the labels and tell them how many, and which ones, they got right). You are advised to pilot test your survey with some friends first. It would be best to supplement the closed questions with some interviews with selected participants, and of course you can offer everyone the opportunity to add any written comments of their own: without such details you won't be able to relate your data to broader isssues. For instance, do they particularly like any of these images, and why? Which ones do they think are 'the best' or most effective? Note that these images are not all 'logos' as such - for instance, there are some heraldic coats of arms (connoting history and tradition, of course), and there's a zodiac sign. I have deliberately excluded logos which consist of the brand names in a particular font, of course, and I have also removed accompanying text which would reveal the brand. Note that not all of the logos shown are the current ones: this is deliberate, to allow for age differences.
When you review your survey, consider in particular:
Present your data in bar-charts and tables as appropriate but don't leave these to 'speak for themselves': discuss the patterns you observe. Whatever your findings, try to account for these with relation to your own data and to published academic research. To what extent can people's recognition of these signs be attributed to relevant aspects of their background? How does their awareness of particular signs relate to their social identity (e.g. as a male or a female, or as a person of a certain age-group)? Danesi (2009) suggests that some logos seem to have a particular cultural resonance, sometimes by alluding to much older imagery or by using basic geometrical shapes or evocative colours. Discuss these patterns in the light of the socio-semiotic concept of differential access to representational codes. If some participants are not from the UK, some of these images may be difficult for them to identify - check which images seem to fall into this category. Tying your points to your data, you may be able to discuss ideas such as that certain signs become part of the common 'cultural currency' of a culture or sub-culture, while others may be popularly interpreted as threats to national identity.
Remember to introduce your study by noting how many were involved, and the breakdown by sex and age. At the end, after discussing your findings, note the limitations of your study, including the fact that it uses only a small sample.
Ensure that you refer to relevant concepts from the lectures-- in particular, signifier, signified, codes, denotation, connotation, and symbolic, iconic and indexical modes (as appropriate). Beware of being misled by the popular use of the words 'icon' and 'iconic': these are not the same as in semiotic usage: see our Dictionary of Media and Communication. Remember that in semiotic discourse, 'iconic' refers to a relation between the signifier and the signified based on some perceived resemblance whereas in popular usage it usually means simply 'famous'. There are problems also with the loose popular use of the word 'symbol' too, since in semiotics, symbols are those with no direct connection between the signifier and the signified (as with most words, which do not resemble and are not naturally connected with what they refer to).
Use this consent form: Consent Form for Interviews, Photography and Recording
This essay needs illustrations in the forms of captioned Figures and Tables and the logos used should be in an Appendix, as should a complete table of responses including the facesheet data on the age and sex of each respondent. The labels (answers) are here. Remember to include a list labelled either Figures or Image sources after your list of References.
Only some of the books on the suggested reading are explicitly semiotic and you may need to recast their insights within a semiotic framework.
Some suggested reading
Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!
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