Constructed in successive stages beginning in 1935, the Moscow metro was designed to be the foremost transportation system in Stalinist Moscow as well as a symbol of socialist might and a metonym for the future socialist society. Soviet officials heralded the metro as an underground palace promoting the values of socialism, and the artwork therein was meant to reflect these values. When Sverdlov Square station opened in 1938, it was decorated with bas-sculptures in the newly sanctioned socialist realist style; the artist, Natalia Danko, chose to depict pairs of male and female folk dancers from seven of the largest nationalities of the Soviet Union. Her sculptures celebrated an idealized view of folk culture that sought to glorify the Soviet state by reflecting ideals such as the joy of every day life and the friendship of the peoples. This thesis employs semiotics to reveal the ambiguity with which viewers may have read these signs, and to demonstrate the polyvalent nature of artistic production. Semiotic theory is useful in order to show how the official discourse of Socialist Realism could be both contested and reinforced through public art. The thesis contends that the Moscow metro, one of the superlative Soviet projects of the 1930s, can be understood as an ambiguous space where meaning was open to diverse interpretations.

My question here revolves around my orientation with my own work; my own frustrations and inability to so often answer the question “can a meaningful place be designed?” This journey examines the theory of semiotics. Through this, three strategies have been developed to explore the branches of semiotic research in Landscape Architecture. The first strategy allows meaning to develop through time, and it is with the repeated usage of people that meaning will accrue. The second strategy shows how meaning can be determined before the design through mapping current and desired locations of meaning in space. And, the third strategy reflects on how meaning emerges from the earth when no interference from designers or users occurs. The result of the three individual strategies is a combination of solutions, illustrating how to create places of true richness. This new space will engage visitors, pull in new visitors, and help create something memorable for those engaging in a space. / October 2008

This study looks at how professional male athletes—particularly undersized athletes—are represented throughout televised sport. Based on the assumption that televised sport is a gendered and predominantly masculine genre, the focus of this analysis is to demonstrate whether or not professional male athletes are evaluated differently based on physical stature, and whether or not such representations reinforce a dominant—mythic—male ideology. Grounded mainly in Gramscian hegemony and Peircean semiotics, the subsequent analysis compares broadcast commentary and visuals taken from the 2010 men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament and the 2010 men’s FIFA World Cup. In both events, it was generally found that taller athletes were praised more positively than smaller athletes. These findings appear to support common sports-related stereotypes, such as, the apparent media-reinforced expectation that professional male athletes be almost inhuman, mythical representations of ordinary men, i.e., the best athletes should be large, intimidating, aggressive, and hyper-masculine symbols.

Constructed in successive stages beginning in 1935, the Moscow metro was designed to be the foremost transportation system in Stalinist Moscow as well as a symbol of socialist might and a metonym for the future socialist society. Soviet officials heralded the metro as an underground palace promoting the values of socialism, and the artwork therein was meant to reflect these values. When Sverdlov Square station opened in 1938, it was decorated with bas-sculptures in the newly sanctioned socialist realist style; the artist, Natalia Danko, chose to depict pairs of male and female folk dancers from seven of the largest nationalities of the Soviet Union. Her sculptures celebrated an idealized view of folk culture that sought to glorify the Soviet state by reflecting ideals such as the joy of every day life and the friendship of the peoples. This thesis employs semiotics to reveal the ambiguity with which viewers may have read these signs, and to demonstrate the polyvalent nature of artistic production. Semiotic theory is useful in order to show how the official discourse of Socialist Realism could be both contested and reinforced through public art. The thesis contends that the Moscow metro, one of the superlative Soviet projects of the 1930s, can be understood as an ambiguous space where meaning was open to diverse interpretations.

The discussion about gender and ideals shown in mass media is a subject of great importance for the society in general. Media is playing an essential part when it comes to establish standards and values and we are constantly exposed to all types of impressions, whether we are aware or not. It is therefore of great importance that we understand how stereotypes are built and to gain a deep knowledge that would enrich the area of Media and Communication Studies. The aim and focus of this study was to analyze how male stereotypes is communicated in print advertising and how visual means of expressions helps to construct the masculinities shown. From a semiotic analysis of seven print adverts appearing in the Swedish lifestyle Magazine Café were we able to gain a thorough understanding about how male stereotypes are communicated and built. The result showed that different kinds of stereotypes are in fact used but it is still a hegemonic masculinity that is predominating. Traditional male characteristics are still in use but we were able to see strong indications of effemination, sexualizing and objectifying. Metro sexuality is a recurring feature in the adverts, and one of the factors that indicate that masculinity is something complex and multi layered. Our study also shows that activity is still essential when it comes to form male qualities, but the impression of the same are nowadays of more importance than the actual activity itself. Attributes and surroundings are key components, and something that implicates that the social climate is focusing on material things.

Since 1993, the Taiwanese society has reached the WHO standard of an aging society in which over 7% of the whole population are older than 65. This research aims to find out the images of older people, those cultural and societal factors involved in the representations of older people, and what roles the media plays to connect the related signs? This research takes perspectives from the critical theories and applies the methodology of semiotics to analysis of Changchun and Kangjiang magazines in Taiwan. The researcher collects 85 different ads containing images of older people and uses the viewpoints of mythology to analyze in semiotic terms in order to make known the cultural myths and ideologies hidden in those images and signs. The result shows, images of older people in the ads are deeply influenced by culture, regarding older people as inevitable declining because of aging. However, owing to modernization of Taiwan and more contact with the western culture, the images of older people in magazine ads start to incorporate new concepts. Fore example, active and energetic ¡§successful¡¨ older people have gradually become the new paradigm. This course of development is similar to that in the American society discussed in the reviewed literature. This change in images is related to the trend that the baby boomers that hold most political and economic resources are starting to retire. In the context of Chinese culture, older people represented in those ads are rarely without their families and values of an idealized family are highly embellished. Although the realities have greatly changed, the traditional image of ¡§three generations in a family¡¨ is constructed as the ideal form of the happy family. Older people are suggested by ads to have the utmost happiness and gratification. In these ads, commodities are presented as the resolution of problems. Conventionally, advertisement ¡§creates¡¨ an anxiety out of short comparison with the ¡§ideal¡¨ and then introduces products as the panacea to cure all the problems. Health-related ads make good use of the existing Chinese medicine belief in pureness and harmlessness of nature and the concept of effectiveness and efficiency of new technology to grant the bio-tech products a combination of benevolence and familiarity of nature and preciseness and effectiveness of technology. By doing so, the ads smooth over the possible conflicts between nature and technology and make up a collage of associated myths. The dominant ideology in ads about older people is the binary extremes of being young or old. By means of emphasizing older people as ugly, unable and powerless, the ideology promotes the values of being young. Advertisements set some high standards for older people to catch up with and assimilate those who are deemed as ¡§insufficient.¡¨ Mythology arbitrarily selects conventional concepts and popular myths to make up seemingly reasonable explanations, successfully transforms the public issues about older people to insufficient anxieties to be coped with by individual efforts, and implies that products are the only resort to ease the anxieties, cleverly de-politicizing the societal awareness of well-being about older people. In a paternal social system, the dominant mainstream ideology tends to separate the dominant and subordinate sides into two contradictory extremes and then establish a few roles models in accord with social expectations to stabilize the structure of the social system. Discriminating levels such as race, sex, class and age are practiced in similar ways. Besides, these discriminating categories will add up and interplay due to the overlapping of a person¡¦s multiple positions and intensity inequality. For instance, in this research the standards and roles for older people, apart form being taken care of in the family, a new kind of images for older people is burgeoning. The new images of Caucasian older people, energetic expressions and lifestyles are modeled as the new paradigm for the elderly. In addition, collaborating with sex discrimination, this study shows, the standards for older males are different form those for older females. The new research domain is worth our further trying to exam the different standards for the male and female elderly from a perspective of sex.

Media is an important social institution to shape gender image especially TV advertising. People expose to a lot a great deal of TV advertising in their daily life. In recent years, the image of ¡§family man¡¨ has appeared on food advertising especially instant processed food advertising that attracts lots of attraction. Thus, this study aim to explore why the image of¡¨family man¡¨ such as ¡§father¡¨ appears on instant processed food advertising? How the image of father is represented on instant processed food advertising? And are there any domestic culture values or ideology hidden in the texts of instant processed food advertising? Semiotic theory is adopt as analyzing methodology in exploring mainstream discourse about father in Taiwan, through images, story and voice-over in advertising.By means of analyzing 12 advertising broadcast during 2005 to 2008, this research tries to understand the image of father represented on the instant processed food advertising. The major finding revealed that fathers are middle age, breadwinner and the sex role- model of son in advertising. The temperaments of fathers in advertising are multiple. Fathers in advertising could be an authoritative father or a new nurturant father. This study also found the relationship between father and other family members is patriarchy. The interaction between father and son is different from father and daughter. And the interesting thing is the study found that product in advertising only solves father¡¦s problems. The study also found fatherhood only be practiced in the text which mother is absent. By means of observing cooking, this study found there are differences between fatherhood and motherhood.In conclusion, even if the concept of ¡§a new nurturant father¡¨ is popular, we still can see a patriarchy society in these texts of instant processed food advertising.

Univ., Diss.--Konstanz, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. 309 - 334.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2003. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-143).

The study that follows is a deep semiotic analysis meant to shed a light on which ideologies the serial represents and communicates to its audience. In my analysis I have used the terms homonormativity and homosubversity to divide the different discursive codes and thus see if it was the former or the latter that the production of Empire preferred. These terms have been used in relation to hegemony, ideology and discourse to fully grip the connection between production and reception.   The study consists of an analysis of the overall narrative of the serial in its entity with focus on the gay character Jamal, in relation to John Fiske’s concept of reality, representation and ideology, and then a deeper semiotic analysis of three strategically chosen scenes. This division was done simply so that I could perceive the show both in terms of representation and semiotic signs, but also the interrelations between production and audience which gives the show its meaning and ideological power.   My analyses showed that Empire is an epithet of hegemony as a moving equilibrium. While the representation of the character Jamal as a gay man may resist homonormative rules in some ways, it reinforces it in others. The serial mostly incorporates homosexuality in the vicinity of heteronormative ideology, but prefers a discourse of homosexual superiority where masculine hegemony even in gay men, is the only way to achieve fair inclusion. The preference of masculinity is done on the expense of femininity.