The Semiotic Analysis of Meanings, Images, and Connotations in Atheistic Discourse: A Critical Study.

Abstract

This study presents practical models for the semiotic discourse of atheism found on social media platforms, specifically Facebook. It falls within the framework of critical analysis of semiotic discourse by examining and analyzing semiotic models used by certain Facebook pages to express specific ideas using signs, signals, symbols, and specific denotive and connotative meanings to spread atheistic thought. The main question of the study revolves around the tools used in the content of atheistic images, their connotations, meanings, and how they are utilized. To answer this question, the study reviews nine semiotic models with atheistic connotations published on Facebook pages. The study argues that these pages have employed various semiotic images in their atheistic discourse, utilizing religious iconography, attributes, settings, salient in the images. It also employs other tools that convey atheistic meanings, connotations, signals, and suggestive models within the sample images studied. The study also explores the importance of analyzing critical semiotic discourse in the field of humanities, from the perspective of using images as a language carrying semiotic symbols, meanings, and connotations that reflect the content according to social, political, cultural, and ideological contexts. Further, the study interprets the relationship between verbal and visual content found in atheistic image expressions.