Visual Text and Communication Business Communication

Question: Describe about the Visual Text and Communication for Business Communication. Answer: A) Charles S. Peirce described a sigh is pattern of stimulus with an attached meaning to it. The picture Humanity washed ashore has gotten response from all over the world and people delivered opinions about it. In the light of Peirces semiotic classification using three concepts of Symbol, index and icon the picture can be evaluated and the non-verbal communication i.e. ideas and messages can be understood in their true sense (Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010) (Machin, 2014) According to Peirce Sanders a signs are a signal aspect or something that has some physical pattern and does carry with itself semantic concept sometimes implied literally or figuratively. The picture here is of a Syrian boys dead body washed ashore and with semantic content stating Humanity washed ashore. The picture is of a 3 year old boys dead body and a picture is drawn of a girl releasing a heart-shaped balloon in the air standing right next to the boys dead body. Here in the whole picture the sign is the death of a little boy due to war criminalities. The photograph with the added drawing of the girl is the representamen or Saussures signifier. The reaction of the public to the photograph is the interpretant or signified, here sorrow. If the photography reaches out to the people and people positively or negatively then it is the referent, the sign of the object. This picture and the message can be easily interpreted for what it exactly stands for; like-wise the little girl adde d by the artist releasing a balloon in the air is an indexical pattern of sign, where the red heart-shaped balloon is released into the air symbolizes the heart of the artist that goes out to the boys loss and those related to him and also to humanity that has also died with the little boy and washed ashore with him. From the indexical pattern of sign the girl added by the artist resembles the reaction of the people after looking at the photograph. With this analysis of the artists intent and understanding what is the artist is trying to imply, the artists Sign has been understood (Grover, 2004) B) The key signs in the image are the picture of the 3 year old boys dead body lying face down in the sand, the girl releasing a heart-shaped red balloon in the air and written words Humanity washed ashore. In this image the message is of death of a little boy who has died due to war and inhumane actions and the girl releasing balloon added by the artist states the sorrow felt by the artist himself. According to Roland Barthes theory of denotation and connotation the denotation message has been overtaken by connotation message of the interpreter. The connotation message here is driven by the access of the interpreter to the codes. The codes vary from interpreter to interpreter. The image is the denotation and signifies the signifier i.e. the artist which in turn signifies the other viewers of the image (Graham, 2003) (Rabate, 2012) To simplify at the denotative level this photograph is of a little boy who has died and washed to the shore. At a connotative level this photograph is associated with death, brutality of war, inhumanity. References: Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2010, November 5). Peirce's Theory of Signs. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce-semiotics/ Graham, A. (2003). Roland Barthes. Routledge publishers. Grover, P. (2004). Visual Texts. Hienemann. Rabate, J. M. (2012). Writing the Image After Roland Barthes. University of Pennsylvania Press.