Critical Semiotic Analysis — Uncovering Ideology in Signs and Texts

Critical semiotic analysis is a qualitative method that examines how signs — words, images, gestures, sounds — construct and naturalise ideological meanings. Drawing on Roland Barthes's distinction between denotation and connotation, and on critical social semiotics developed by Kress and van Leeuwen, the approach moves beyond surface-level description to expose how texts reproduce or challenge power relations, cultural norms, and dominant ideologies.