Social Semiotics for Social Media Visuals

Abstract

The social semiotics approach examines the meaning-making process in order to demonstrate how meaning is constructed in social actions and contexts. The rising interest of researchers in social media and its widespread use in society have both highlighted new challenges for data analysis. Social semiotics can provide a deep understanding of the visual grammar of the social media meaning-making process by assuming that this process is considered a social practice. The main objective of this chapter is to guide researchers and enable them to use the social semiotic approach as a research tool for the analysis of visuals in the social media environment. The chapter introduces the key elements, principles, assumptions, and rules of using the social semiotics approach in the analysis, understanding, and interpretations of social media visuals and how to explore the role played by visual elements in the meaning-making process in a social media within a specific social context.

A visual social semiotic investigation into the popularity of Ronaldo and Messi’s chess photo on Instagram: Implications for new media and audience engagement

“…This approach is particularly suited for dissecting the viral photograph of Messi and Ronaldo, offering insights into the layered meanings that transcend conventional media narratives. It particularly focuses on how people interact with images and other visual objects, all interpreted within a social context (Elhamy, 2022).…”

“…The study of social semiotics has also extended to the analysis of social media, with a focus on the semiotic strategies employed by individuals, including politicians, to convey authenticity in their self-presentation (Poulsen et al, 2018). The work of visualization conventions in data visualization has been highlighted, emphasizing the economic and political implications of semiotic activity (Elhamy, 2022).…”

Digital corporate communication and visual communication

“…The large, well-established body of visual semiotics work that has been studied and which has classified image-based features and their communicative functions offers relevant knowledge on the three main functions of images for digital visual content production too. Developed for analysing images in general, the representational/ideational, interpersonal and compositional/textual functions (Harrison, 2003;Jewitt & Oyama, 2001;Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996) have been specifically applied to analyse online and digital visual content as well, including moving images (e.g., Alkateeb, 2020;Elhamy, 2022;Maier, 2012;Maier et al, 2019;Murtarelli et al, 2021;Valentini et al, 2018). Briefly, the representational/ideational function is linked to the illustrated narrative with a specific emphasis on the sequential order of the represented objects and subjects and how they are presented in the image (Harrison, 2003;Jewitt & Oyama, 2001;Krees & Van Leeuwen, 1996).…”