4. Discuss the implications of the following image for cultural studies and the process of signification (semiotics)

Media studies and cultural studies study ideology, or in other words common sense/ the study of ideas. More specifically it is interesting to investigate cultural ideology - that is how specific cultures make sense of things, in this case images. The media shapes us and we shape the media. Culture is constantly moving but myths tend to be a cultural constant. Myths include symbols, imagination/fantasy, images of leadership etc.
Semiotics is the study of how words are signs of something else. For example, the word "table" means physically a flat surface with about four legs holding it up. However, the word "table" can mean something very different depending on the culture. Barthes talks about the myth and how there are millions of cultural mythologies. Take for instance this image. The words underneath say "This is is not a pipe" in French. The artist is connoting a message that there are many ways of interpreting this image because all cultures have different "signs" that bring different "signifiers/signified" images.