Bringing back the image into its frame: Barthes' soldier and the contextual frame of human perception and interpretation of signs

Abstract

In this article, the authors try to review the Paris-Match cover page (No. 326 from 1955) analyzed by Roland Barthes and introduces a new model of analyzing sign system from a new semiotic approach based on the new definition of the context. This research is based on three layers of the context and shows that understanding the cover page of a magazine or any other kind of text is not only absolute but also somehow relative due to the different background knowledge of the audience. This means that human sees the Context A, or what is designed, in the situation of Context B, or situational context, and interpret based on their Context C, or background knowledge of the audience.