Semiotic analysis of university promotional films in the context of corporate communication

Films, with their distinctive language, can be interpreted as narratives when regarded as communication systems, much like written texts. In this context, directors, actors, and screenwriters aim to convey emotions and ideas to the audience, while cinema employs elements such as color, movement, and other signs in the production of meaning; these signs, in turn, function as a fundamental guide for the audience in the process of interpretation. Barthes expanded semiotics beyond spoken language into cultural, social, and aesthetic contexts, thereby making the analysis of signs possible in fields such as fashion, architecture, graphic design, and cinema. In this study, promotional films of state universities were analyzed within Barthes' tripartite semiotic framework of denotation, connotation, and myth. The films were examined through a holistic approach, while frames containing semantic distinctions in composition were analyzed separately. In this way, the analysis revealed not only the visual or auditory components of the promotional films but also the institutional messages they convey as complete narratives. Ultimately, the study discusses how each university's promotional film presents institutional elements within the context of corporate communication and through which signs it reinforces its institutional identity.