Decoding Ads: Semiotic Analysis of Media Messages

Key Concepts and Framework

The Point of Semiotic Analysis

  1. Reality is constructed by language and culture.

    • What we perceive as “real” is shaped by cultural norms and language.
    • Ads reflect and reinforce cultural values, but also reveal societal anxieties, contradictions, and ideologies.
  2. Signs require interpretation.

    • Nothing has a universal, fixed meaning; all signs are understood through cultural and historical contexts.
    • Ads use signs to communicate ideas, sell products, and appeal to emotional or social
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Photography History, Techniques, and Composition

History of Photography

  • 1826: Joseph Niepce took the first photo, which required 8 hours of exposure.
  • 1837: Daguerre fixed an image on silver-plated copper.
  • 1840: Talbot developed the negative-to-positive process using photosensitive paper.
  • 1851: Archer obtained copies on paper using a sensitized glass plate.
  • 1994: Digital cameras began to be sold.

Physical Principles of Photography

Light affects materials, changing their image and color. To capture a clear image, light rays are converged using a lens.

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Velázquez’s ‘The Toilet of Venus’: A Baroque Masterpiece

The Toilet of Venus by Diego Velázquez

Spanish Baroque Painting, 1648

The National Gallery of London

Oil on canvas. 122.5 x 177 cm.

Genre: Mythological painting. The topic was started by Venetian painters in the previous century (Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus and Titian’s Venus of Urbino or Venus Recreating the Music), but Velázquez deals with it with prodigious naturalness and originality.

Topic: Lying on rich gray sheets on a bed protected by a crimson curtain, a naked woman, seen from behind, is absorbed

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Gandhara vs. Mathura: Art Schools of Ancient India

On the western borders of Punjab, the Gandhara School of Art flourished in modern-day Afghanistan and Peshawar. The Mathura School developed on the banks of the River Yamuna between the first and third centuries BCE. Regardless of the fact that both schools of art seem to have arisen during the Kushana dynasty’s reign, they are found in separate locations: in Mathura and in the Northwest Frontier.

Mathura School of Art

  • This School of Art was heavily influenced by Indianism.
  • Spotted red sandstone was
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Marketing and Consumer Behavior: Strategies and Insights

Theme 6: Marketing

6.1 Concept of Marketing

  • The term marketing comes from the English language and is used and accepted by virtually all languages. In Spanish, there is a similar word: “mercadotecnia,” which refers to a set of marketing techniques.
  • The most accepted definition is a set of activities designed to achieve, for a profit, the satisfaction of consumer needs with a product or service.
  • The more classical definition of marketing states that it is a series of activities that direct the flow of
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Understanding Social Structures and Human Behavior

Health Policy

Transparency. Public administrations and agencies must report their participation in citizen actions. Both plenary sessions of parliament and municipalities are public, and any citizen can attend them as a spectator.

Judicial action. Intervention by the administration of justice to detect and prosecute criminal acts and impose penalties to repair the damage is a way of defending ethics and assuming the responsibilities that correspond to each.

Making Policy

Elections, political parties,

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