Textual analysis is to find out what are the messages contained in the texts. Texts are everywhere in the media, such as films, TV shows, books, or music. Texts present as a vehicle of how the senders transferring meaning to the viewers. For any kind of media, I like to analyse the deeper meaning and the behind message. It is interesting to discover what the authors want to communicate with the audience and how different people have different sense to a particular media.

We also discussed about the key terms of analysing semiotic tradition.

• sign, signifier, signified
• Denotation, connotation
• Codes
• ‘Myth’ / Ideology

There are two parts of sign, signifier and signified. Signifier is the literal or first order meaning which is denotation. Signified is the cultural or second order meaning which is connotation. For example, if there is a white dove in the image. The signifier of the text is the whiter dove. While the signified shows the connotation of peace and love.

To apply the textual analysis, we had an example in class.

In the photograph, we can see that there is a father happily throwing his son into the pool where with the background of luxurious resort. The font using in the photograph shows that the brand is in a high class level. The statement of “The difference you can feel” suggests that the product has a better quality than others. This advertisement was on GQ magazine in April 2014. The targeting audiences for this magazine are the middle-aged males. It is also targeting the audience who has more disposable income and are willing to purchase the luxury product.

I definitely found this lecture being beneficial. I had learned more sense on textual analysis and I am able to analyse the difference between denotation and connotation of media.