Semiotics Theory

Semiotic theory focuses on the meaning of signs, codes and conventions in society and culture. Signs are typically consist of an image, world of an object. We all will have certain feelings and meanings towards specific signs and symbols, but certain cultures will see signs as a collective meaning whether we agree with what they represent or not. Semiotics focuses on the study of signs in three different stages:

Perception Stage- The person visually sees a sign and becomes aware of its presence

Manipulation Stage- The person reads of takes in what the sign represents and decides how to react to it

The consummation stage- The person responds to what they have decided to do and performs the action

An example of these three in the common world is seeing a stop sign (perception stage) reading it and seeing the word stop (manipulation stage) and then reacting to it via stopping (consummation stage)

Denotation: This is the literal meaning of a word such as "a car is a vehicle"

Connotation: The hidden meaning behind a word and what is represents such as "a car especially to a teenager symbolises freedom and independence"

This can be applied to music magazines because some colours and signs that have been used represent certain things, the colour of school buses especially in america can be used as a sign as the colour is interpreted quicker than any other colour, and the colour of a magazine could also be seen this way to make it stand out from the rest to the audience. the colour scheme and the images used will be more positively seen by the audience making them want to buy magazines.