A Semiotic Analysis on the Cold War Imagery as Employed in the Television Show, The Americans.

IntroductionIn this paper, the study will employ the framework proposed by Van Leeuwen (2008) in analysing representation social actors. Images of high modality, such as stills of photography or in this case, the stills from an opening credit of a television show, will be used as items for this study. Chandler (2013) noted that cinematic signifier (such as images in a movie/ television show) suggest less obvious gap between the signifier and signified, which in turn makes the image at hand to seemingly offer reflections of reality. Simply put, images that will be analysed in this study will feature real images , which are more realistic and high in modality in the effort of analysing the perceptual, mass media codes in the constructed reality of the television show The Americans.Objective To look at how ideologies associated with Cold-War era of Soviet Union and USA are realized in the television show, The Americans. To examine reasons for employing a particular image and its associated meanings in the depiction of Soviet Union and the USA.

Research Questions What are the Icons, Symbols and Indexical signs used in the depiction of Soviet Union and USA in television show, The Americans? How are social actors represented in television shows depicting Soviet Union and USA during the Cold War? What are the reasons for employing (1) and (2) in the depiction of Soviet Union and the United States in the opening credits of?

Literature ReviewVan Leeuwen (2008) noted that images provide us with interpretations, ideologically coloured angles that appeals to us by suggestion, by connotation of our barely conscious, half-forgotten knowledge. It is with images that the viewer take an active role because meaning formation are ultimately decided by the viewer instead of the intended meaning that are trying to be encoded by the image producer. Chandler (2013) in his discussion of the role of signs in the construction of reality argued that to semioticians, a defining feature off signs is that they are treated by users as standing for or representing other things. In relation to this study, we will study this from the perspective that formation of meanings from images, just like words, are abstractions and that there is no direct correspondence between images and things in the world.

MethodologyOnly Visual Text will be analyzed in this study. This is by virtue of the opening credits for the television show The Americans itself which make us of only textual names and significant use of visual imagery.Daniel Chandlers Constructivist approach to Semiotic Analysis is employed in this study. In short, our understanding of semiotic signs employed in the opening credits that will be studied are more concerned of the relation of elements to each other in a text. Meaning is shaped by way of understanding the discourse that occurs within a text.Icons, symbols and indexes employed in the opening credits of the television show The Americans are first analysed to serve as a ground for the discussion of Soviet Union and the United States of America as having differing political and economic ideology. This differentiation will further be explored on the representation of social actors of both countries, coupled with theories of economy and socio cultural phenomena as guidance for the assertions that will be made throughout the study. AnalysisThe Analysis will be divided in two parts : 1) exploring how Index, Icon and Symbol are used in the opening credit of the television show, The Americans and , 2) the representation of social actors from the same opening credit.The analysis will began with a general description of the text and its elements, followed by contextual knowledge (often not available in the text itself) for any attempt of understanding the text to be meaning full.Visual 1(A)

Visual 1(B)

The two images above feature Capitol Building in Washington D.C and Saint Basils Cathedral in Moscow. Both images are of man-made buildings, structured with walls and roof. These two images are symbolic in nature, used to represent and mean a particular message. Literary works within the realm of sociology and political science would have us informed that certain connotations are attached to images that are symbolic of a particular country and geographical location. Words such as Capitalism, Democracy are often used hand in hand with images of the United States or other iconic images supposedly representative of the aforementioned ideas. Similarly, images featuring Soviet Union comes it them the attached connotation of Communism and Socialism. Again, human ability to recognize that an image as being associated with a specific geographical location lends itself to cognitive and emotional response on the part of the reader (Soules, 2007, )What both of the images do is that they position an image and provides a mental picture for the viewer and the interpreter of the message to identify and associate images with a specific group of people, that shares their aspirations and their social order and organization.Visual 2

The next pair of images employ similar concept as explained above, that cognitive association with icons, symbols and indexes are used for its ability for humans to recall and recollect information in the form of visual images faster than written word. Here we see that instead of buildings and a location being used to recall our understanding, the writer or producer of the images above employ indexical status of signs in our minds to achieve meaning between signifier-signified. In this case, prior knowledge of the signified images is needed for the image to achieve its communicative purposes. Simply put, the readers, in interpreting the message would need to know beforehand that the indexed image (that of statues of Vladimir Lenin and Thomas Jefferson) are indexical of an actual individual and not created out of thin air to represent something. Once this knowledge is known to the reader, additional connotation and representation can now be attached to them. Readers associate the indexical images of these men (signifier) as representing their ideas and actions that they have taken (signified). It could be argued that this relationship is highly arbitrary, especially when for example, an American interprets of Vladimir Lenin and similarly, someone of Soviet Union interprets indexical image of Thomas Jefferson. This relationship are said to be arbitrary because they are learned, primarily through media and shared knowledge of those around them. It is through this process that the indexical images achieve its communicative purposes. The final result of these processes would have us form a cognitive and connotative association of Vladimir Lenin being associated with Communism, Socialism and Soviet Union and Thomas Jefferson as being associated to connotative meanings such as Capitalism and Democracy. Representation of Social ActorsVisual 3(A)

Visual 3(B)

The pair of images above occurs in sequence in the opening credits of The Americans. The first sequence of images depicts what appears to be a young boy swinging his baseball bat. The second image of the sequence shows a young boy, without his shirt on and another man standing behind him holding a long stick. This second image is foregrounded by Cyrillic characters and is slightly lower in modality than the first image because of the fact that it is in black-and-white photography as opposed to the first image which is in colour photography. Barthes (1973, as cited in Leeuwen ,2008) noted that objects reproduced in images carry with them the association of where the come from and this ultimately portray the values and ideas that are commonly associated with the place of origin of that particular object/culture/ actor in the image. Thus it is interesting to note in this study that two different images have been selected to represent 2 different countries with differing ideologies such as the Soviet Union and the United States of America. By focussing on physical activities engaged by the element in the picture, a schema in the part of the viewer is triggered to associate an image of a boy with a baseball bat and a batting helmet as being that of an American and inversely, the image that of a boy and an older man to be that of a Soviet one. It would be argued that these conclusions that we have come to, from the perspective of Semiotics are not entirely wrong when we take into consideration other factors such as theory of economy in informing us about elements depicted in the picture. Briefly, in economics, means of production is described as physical assets to produce wealth such as machinery, tools and factories. In an agrarian society, soil and shovel are the means of production, which is what we could see from the second picture, the image of a boy and an older man. Thus it can be seen now that the selection of these two differing images has been done delicately to include with it all the possible interpretation in realizing a set of meaning. As discussed earlier, one picture depicts the USA and sports that young boy are involved in and another, Soviet Union , realized by an image of a boy and an older man engaging in an agricultural activity in the realization of agriculture as a means to production, which serves as a central economic idea in the ideology of Communism. Finally, the use of both texts could be taken to mean that youngsters in the USA engage in baseball as a pastime activity and those in the Soviet Union engage in agriculture/ farming

Visual 4(A)

Visual 4(B)

It appears to show the presence of a physical activity commonly known as dancing featured on both texts. Picture on the right is inconclusive in its reference to a particular group of people so the second picture is used as a starting point for analysis. The dance depicted on the right is commonly known as Hopak/ Cossack dance, a type of dance popular in the region of Ukraine and its surrounding areas with similar culture and historical background.What this section of analysis wishes to highlight is that meaning making does not necessarily be achieved only through familiar images that are used for interpretation. It is argued that inferring of messages, (as was done to the set of images presented above), for those who are not familiar with the Hopak/ Cossack dance are done by way of familiarity through defamaliarity. This concept, adapted from the idea of familiarity heuristic in psychology informs us that in the presence of elements that are unable to be recalled by the reader, the bias of availability is related to the ease of recall. That is, because image 4 (B) might be harder to interpret, readers will use available resources from images of 4(A) in order to form meaning. So readers that accept as the dance in Visual 4(B) as being foreign and the Visual 4(A) as being American( eventhough it could just be about anyone in shorts). Thus the writers have achieved his/ her purpose of creating the text- to achieve cognitive association.

DiscussionIt is particularly interesting to note that Items of national symbols are often the focus when delivering message to the masses. Whether in media or propaganda, knowledge of how we associate certain images with a particular message or ideology is immensely important in harvesting attention of audience. Like advertisement, communication of ideologies rely heavily on the audience knowing its intended meaning as well as other meanings that are not related to it.Symbolic shape, with similar design such as the star (in both the Soviet Union and the United States ) means completely different in the two country/ ideology. Interpretation of Icons, Symbols, Indexes used in the representation of two different nations, with two different political and economic systems are highly dependent on viewers / readers contextual knowledge and familiarity with cultural understanding of both domains.

ConclusionCulture is almost always connected with national aspirations or ideals, and vice versa. What was evident, especially in the representation of social actors of The Americans opening credit was the association of social activities as being related to a specific geographical location and to a particular belief system espoused by a group of people. The role of the reader (of images, text, etc) is particularly highlighted, albeit covertly, with the emphasis on meaning making being dependent on readers sense of identity that is established through signs. The focus this study on the opening credit of the television show The Americans have been directed towards meaning making, agenda setting are all dependent on sign systems. This sign system realize a notion, or an idea , on which we continue to build, reassess, revalidate and reaffirm our knowledge of the world, and how we view ourselves in relation of others. What is more interesting is that these sign systems, such as the hammer and sickle as the symbol for Communism, are signs that we do not create but are accepted through conventional use. Cognitive association, through conventional use enables the producer off the message to achieve its intended meaning that might be guided by the need to inform, disseminate new information and knowledge, or to serve as a tool for propaganda in setting the agenda for a country/ a group of people with similar aspirations.

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