Images construct meaning through visual signs. They do not simply represent a shared reality but present various signs, which when combined together create meaning. Meaning is interpreted and made sense of by audiences through analysing these signs. (Chandler, 2021)

In Introduction to Communication Studies, John Fiske and Henry Jenkins explain that semiotics is a useful tool for image analysis because it analyses how meaning is made through signs. Signs take two forms which together make meaning – the signifier and the signified. The signifier refers to “what the form is”, and “the signified is ‘what the form means’” (Fiske & Jenkins, 2010). In relation to image construction, examples of signs could be colour, composition and lighting. Darker colours can make an image feel sinister or intense whereas lighter shades often connote happiness. Body language and positioning also functions as signs. By analysing individual signs within an image, we can come to understand how certain meanings are produced and normalised for audiences.

Signs become meaningful through cultural connotations which are known as myths. Myths are meanings that we make of the world that have become socially constructed as natural (Fiske & Jenkins, 2010). Signs such as associating wealth with good or thin bodies with beauty support dominant cultural myths. Meanings are not constructed or embedded within the image, rather culture invents meanings for signs. Mythmaking points to the process through which images produce intended meanings for audiences. Certain ways of thinking get naturalised whilst others are excluded. Ideology has a close relationship to mythmaking. Ideology can be defined as the ideas that help facilitate the perpetuation of social arrangements in society. (Hall 1997) Therefore, images can help reproduce ideology by presenting the world in a particular way.

Images in media reproduce ideology in a variety of ways. Advertising promotes capitalist ideology by convincing audiences to engage with products and services. In buying products that they are told they need; audiences are participating in consumer culture. Images of beauty promote beauty ideals that beautify certain bodies rather than others. Media can also reproduce ideological beliefs about gender, race, class – supporting social inequalities. (Hall 1997) Ideology functions in subtle ways, and that is why media has the ability to convince us to buy into it. A method of analysing images which could uncover ideology is exploring what is not included in the image. As opposed to looking for answers, audience members should question what is being communicated. By doing this, we can learn about what types of ideology media is reinforcing.

Meaning is not in the image but created by the audience. As different people will take away different meanings from an image, someone could argue that meaning is situated within the audience. Cultural background, social contexts and lived experiences can affect how someone interprets an image. The negotiated and oppositional readings from the audience reception theory demonstrates that audiences don’t always understand an image in its intended way. (Hall 1997) Although images construct specific meanings, audiences can choose to either accept or reject these meanings.

The study of images has allowed me to understand that visual images should be treated as texts. Images communicate with audiences through signs and meanings. Using semiotics and ideology as frameworks has allowed me to understand how images create preferred meanings and reinforce dominant ideals.