Semiotics according to Roland Barthes and its relevance for PR and communication: Between sign and meaning:

What do an advertising poster, a brand name and a political slogan have in common? They are all signs - and they all convey more than what is visible at first glance. Roland Barthes, one of the most influential semioticians of the 20th century, has shown how deeply our everyday communication is embedded in cultural structures of meaning and why this is more relevant than ever for modern PR and communication practice. If you want to understand how messages really work, you have to learn to read signs with semiotics according to Roland Barthes.

From Prof. Dr. Patrick PetersProfessor for Communication and sustainability and Vice-Rector for Research and Teaching Material Development at the Allensbach University

The world we live in is not only structured by objects, actions and language, but also by the meanings we ascribe to these things. Whether we understand a red scarf as a fashion accessory, a symbol of protest or a warning signal - we always interpret a sign in context. This is exactly where semiotics comes in. As the science of signs, it deals with the question of how meaning is created. One of its most influential representatives in the 20th century was the French literary scholar, cultural theorist and semiotician Roland Barthes. His work continues to provide valuable impulses for understanding modern communication processes - especially in the field of public relations.

Every cultural object potentially a sign

Roland Barthes' semiotics took up Ferdinand de Saussure's structuralist semiotics, but went beyond its formal consideration of signs. For Barthes, every cultural object was potentially a sign - clothing, advertising, architecture or even wrestling. In his work Myths of Everyday Life (1957/2010), he examined everyday phenomena in order to uncover their hidden ideological meanings. He thus applied semiotics not only to language in the narrower sense, but to the entire cultural field of meaning. Barthes differentiated between the first order of semiosis - the sign as a connection between the signified (signifier) and the signified (signified) - and a second order in which these signs themselves become carriers of meaning in an ideological context. A concrete product - such as a white Mercedes - becomes a myth in this second order: not just a car, but an expression of status, purity or German engineering spirit (Barthes, 2010).

PR material can be decoded semiotically

This mythological dimension is particularly central to PR and strategic communication. If you want to create or change meanings, you need to know the mechanisms by which these meanings are created and circulate. Barthes' approach shows that communication is never just the transmission of information, but always a cultural construction. A PR text, an advertising spot or a company blog post not only functions as a carrier of information, but also ascribes a meaning to the communicated object - consciously or unconsciously. Companies that present themselves as "green", for example, not only use language and images, but also make use of a stock of symbols that is deeply embedded in cultural ideas. The supposedly neutral PR material thus becomes part of a complex structure of meaning that can only be decoded with a semiotic view.

Semiotics according to Roland Barthes: influential concept of connotative meaning

Barthes also did pioneering work in media analysis. In The Bright Chamber (1980/2020), he examined photography as a medium of meaning. He introduced terms such as "study" and "punctum" to describe the ambivalent effect of images: While the study concerns the culturally coded, legible level of the image, the punctum refers to an emotional moment that "strikes" the individual. In PR, this means that visual communication always works on two levels - the controllable and the uncontrollable. Images in campaigns can be interpreted, but also misunderstood or reinterpreted, which harbors the potential for crises. Anyone who practices professional PR must therefore say, with Barthes, that communication is never innocent.

Barthes' concept of connotative meaning is particularly influential for modern communication research. Communication works not only through what is explicitly said, but also through what resonates. The PR concept of "image building" is hardly understandable without this dimension. A company "communicates" through architecture, dress code or design as well as through texts. Barthes makes it clear that these fields of signs are never value-neutral, but are culturally shaped, ideologically charged and effective in combination. The discourse of communication science has taken up and expanded on these findings - for example in the concept of "framing" theory (Entman, 1993), which also uses semiotic logic to describe media frameworks of interpretation.

Semiotics and brand communication in the digital age

Roland Barthes' theoretical insights have long since found their way into the practice of professional communication strategies. This is particularly evident in the area of storytelling and branding, where companies work specifically with signs, meanings and cultural codes to generate emotional resonance. Barthes' concept of connotative meanings helps to understand why certain images or terms work in the public sphere - and others do not.

A current example is provided by the sustainability communication of major consumer goods brands. Companies such as Patagonia or The Body Shop present themselves in their brand communication not only through product characteristics, but also through a morally charged world of symbols. Images of nature, earth tones, simple typography and certain word fields such as "responsibility", "future" or "community" create a myth that goes beyond the purely factual. According to Barthes, a complex of signs is constructed here that not only advertises clothing or cosmetics, but also offers a cultural narrative about lifestyle, values and attitude. The act of consumption is semiotically transformed - the purchase of a sweater becomes a statement about saving the world.

Political PR campaigns also use semiotic means to form collective identities. Barack Obama's "Yes we can" campaign or the recent "We can do it" rhetoric in the German refugee debate are more than just political statements. They are mythical condensations of complex social processes. The phrase itself becomes a signifier that evokes different signifiers - from hope to skepticism to fear - depending on how it is read by society. The power of such messages lies precisely in their openness to the attribution of meaning, a phenomenon that Barthes repeatedly emphasizes in his analysis of advertisements or photographs (Barthes, 2010; Barthes, 2020).

Characters cannot be controlled at will

Another revealing case study is the rebranding of Facebook to Meta. This rebranding did not simply introduce a new company name, but rather recoded an entire world of meaning. The old sign "Facebook", which was associated with social networks, data protection scandals and the digital public sphere, was replaced by "Meta" - a term that evokes the future, technology, abstract spaces and vision. Semiotically speaking, this is a strategic shift in the signifier: The signifier remains digital, networked, global - but the signified is now supposed to mean future, metaverse and innovation, no longer social media in the narrower sense. The fact that such reinterpretations are not always successful again shows how deeply anchored cultural codes are and that signs cannot be controlled at will - this is also a Barthesian insight.

Influencer marketing follows semiotic rules

The semiotic logic is particularly evident in crisis communication. When a car manufacturer like Volkswagen emphasizes after the emissions scandal that it wants to "win back trust", this is not a purely substantive but a symbolic operation. Language becomes a sign of self-assurance and rehabilitation. In such cases, PR professionals resort to symbols that draw on collective cultural systems of meaning: security, transparency, responsibility. Whether such signs are convincing depends on whether they are credibly embedded in existing cultural narratives - or whether they are perceived as artificial and calculated.

Influencer marketing also follows semiotic rules. Influencers act as semiotic interfaces that translate products into cultural contexts through their body, lifestyle and language. A smoothie becomes a symbol for mindfulness, a sports outfit a cipher for empowerment. This transformation is not accidental, but highly strategic: PR makes use of the Barthesian principle of the "second order of meaning production", in which the sign itself becomes the bearer of a new myth - namely the narrative that the product stands for a better life, a special attitude or a collective ideal.

Be aware of the symbolic nature of every act of communication

The consequence for PR practice is that if you want to communicate professionally, you have to think semiotically. Every visual element, every slogan, every design, every setting - they are all more than a surface. They are carriers of meaning in a cultural system. Barthes not only analyzed this fact, he exposed it. He has shown that every sign also conceals a power structure. In doing so, he also provides a critical corrective to contemporary communication practice, which often plays with signs without reflecting on their deep cultural structure.

The relevance of semiotics according to Roland Barthes for PR and communication therefore lies not only in the analysis of existing communication phenomena, but also in their strategic application: Anyone who wants to build a brand, steer public opinion or place a message must be aware of the symbolic nature of every act of communication. Barthes' semiotics helps us to see not only what is being communicated - but how and why it works. At a time when attention has become a currency and meaning is constantly being renegotiated, Barthes' semiotic approach is once again gaining topicality. Critical reflection on the production of reality through signs, images and language is indispensable for strategic communication. Semiotics according to Roland Barthes teaches us that every sign is also an ideological place - and that communication, understood as the production of meaning, is a profoundly cultural and political act.

Bibliography

• Barthes, R. (2010). Myths of Everyday Life (F. Meinel, transl.). Suhrkamp. (original work 1957)
• Barthes, R. (2020). The bright chamber: Remarks on photography (D. Hollier, ed.). Suhrkamp. (original work 1980)
• Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x