How to analyse media texts

Analysing Texts:

Semiotic Deconstruction

Thursday, 9 April 2009

Analysing Texts

As the adjacent syllabus extract makes clear, your terrifyingly-imminent exam requires that you be able to pick apart a pretty wide variety of different media texts.

So, today we’re going to do just that. But what does ‘picking apart’ a text involve?


Media texts have become very complex things, filled with codes and signs designed to get certain information across to us quickly, often without us realising. When we pick a text apart, we are ‘deconstructing’ these codes, identifying the individual messages that work together to create certain effects.

This process is often referred to a ‘semiotic analysis’: semiotics is the study of signs.

Analysing Texts: Semiotics



Take this advert for example.

There are a ton of messages being conveyed here, that you have to get used to finding and commenting upon:




The girl herself is attractive and well-dressed, connoting wealth, sophistication and social success


The logo directly represents the tail of the plane




The kissing couple links the brand with romance and passion





The stylish shoes reinforce the association with sophistication and a high-class clientele




All of the cities mentioned here are ‘cool’ cities, which the brand is attempting to associate with









The headline pun links the flight with beauty








The colours and lighting evoke a neon nightlife - clubs, bars, etc.









The imperative ‘this is’ assumes an air of authority



The italicised text suggests movement



















The font is modern and stylish - like the airline, we assume











The font is modern and stylish - like the airline, we assume

The icon reminds us of the product being sold, the red linking both to the Virgin brand and to ideas of passion and sex




Pretty much any media text can be analysed and deconstructed in this way - you need to get used to identifying the meanings behind all of the different elements, and considering alternative interpretations.

Your task, then, is to do exactly that: ten texts, from a variety of different media forms, for you to semiotically assess as a group. Simply annotate every significant element, attempting to find a ‘meaning’ behind each.



Simply annotate every significant element, attempting to find a ‘meaning’ behind each.

That means:

- Colours

- Fonts

- Images (every aspect of them!)

- Logos/Icons

- Text/Language Devices


Analysing Texts: Representations

You’ll have noticed whilst you were doing that that each text was labelled with a different area of representation, in line with the syllabus requirements.

As a group, discuss how each text is presenting the group specified, and consider the messages being conveyed.

Some are more complex than others, but try to say as much as you can.













So anyway, about this film poster...





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How to analyse media texts

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