Meaning

We can't argue that everything, whether it's a living thing or an object, has some meaning to it. Sometimes meaning is obvious, but often times we have to search for the meaning behind something. Why do we stop at a red light and go when the light is green? Why do we view smoking as a bad habit? Meaning can be recognized in two different ways; represented meaning and conceptual meaning. Representational meaning "always points to the real world." The text book uses an example of the word "dog." When we see the word "dog," we know it's a four legged animal animal that barks. Conceptual meaning refers to the "thoughts inside our minds." When we see the word "dog," what picture pops into our mind. It's different for everyone. When I see the word "dog," I picture my own dog, but you may picture your dog or a friend's dog.

Codes also contribute to the meanings of things. They can be simple, like green means go and red means stop, or they can be more complex. According to the textbook, a code is a systematic organization of structure of signs." Sign are also important in terms of meaning. A sign is different from what the the object/ thing represents. "A sign is always a sign of absence." For example, we can't put the image of a desk on the page, but of I write, I have a desk in my room, the word "desk" signifies the image I am talking about, therefore we can recognize the meaning. Lastly, we have semiotic meaning which refers to the way we think about the meaning of any message or text written. Are there any codes or signs and if so, what do they mean?

So you can see that everything has meaning of some sort, whether it's a word, object, or even a living thing, and the way we interpret and see the meaning in these thing is different for all of us.

Ideology

When I think of ideology, I see several factors that play a role into why we see things the way we do. I believe that we base our ideologies on what we see as right and wrong based on how we're raised and how media and society influence us. Growing up, our parents and even out religious beliefs set core morals and values that we are told to abide by at a young age. Not to smoke, not to drink, and not to have sex, to name a few. Our peers and society also play a role by establishing what we see as acceptable and we often times forget our own morals and values to do what our society of peers view as "cool." Even the media plays a large role into how we view things. The media creates these ideal images our society views as acceptable, whether it's through the models being used or underlying meaning being projected in advertisements. No matter what way you look at it, almost everything has some sort of influence on how we view the world and what we see as "ideal."