Define text in the context of semiotics
Text is actually characters or words which able to combine together and become a kind of language. Text can be in verbal form, example, someone talking, a record of an audio or a record of a video with people talking. Text also can be non verbal, such as words and typography on an image. Text can also be the combination of both. Text is usually carried with a certain meaning. Either it is just a character or a few characters, it still carry a meaning or a sign. Semiotic is the study of sign which also include analysis of texts. Texts are always containing signs in it. For example, “chicken”. This text is a signifier; it will signified image of a chicken, chicken little or KFC. Text can be said as a combination of multiple signs. Like bold text has different sign, red color text has different sign, image to compose out a text has different sign, text that spoke by a person with gesture has another different sign. All these text examples can be combined which create another kind of text that carried another sign. We often see text in any kind of mediums which carried a sign, such as movie, poster, banner and etc.
Define media in the context of semiotics
“The medium is the message” by Marshall McLuhan. Media is something that with messages and could be deliver to the other people. Text is also a kind of media, so media is definitely related to signs or to semiotics. A medium or media could work successfully to deliver a message is because of the signs. We could see a lot of signs in a media. An image with two hands shaking together, it is a sign of friendship, or could be a sign of agreement. When a people saw a media, in order to understand it, people will start to interpret the message or the sign. This is a process of decoding. Signs can be seen in any of the media, we are often influence by the media because of the sign. The media tell us a message by using a sign. A sign that give meaning to the particular media and then interpret by us. Basically, signs take the form of image, text, words, sounds and objects. All these forms are actually media.
Both refered to: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html
