Visual iconic signs are more universally readable than linguistic signs.
Evidence
The televisual sign is a peculiarly complex one, as we know. It is a visual sign with strong, supplementary aural-verbal support. It is one of the iconic signs, in Peirce’s sense, that, whereas the form of the written sign is arbitrary in relation to its signified, the iconic sign reproduces certain elements of the signified in the form of the signifier. … It is also true that the iconic sign may support “mis-readings” simply because it is so “natural,” so “transparent.” Mistakes may arise here, not because we as viewers cannot literally decode the sign (it is perfectly obvious what it is a picture of), but because we are tempted, by its very “naturalization” to “misread” the image for the thing it signifies. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 800
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- XREF: Ties to Peirce’s iconic sign and to debates about visual literacy and media manipulation.
Related
- Iconic signs appear natural because viewers decode them through shared perceptual codes (similarity 0.83)