Photos and ideology: Semiotic analysis of the photos used in the Turkish press, relevant to the 17. december process

During our everyday life, we live in the world of signs. It is obligatory for us to analyze different indicators and give these indicators meanings, in order to understand what is around us. Many indicators we see transmit us a certain message through the codification carried out by the source. At this point, semiotics steps in, in order for us to interpret all these indicators. When we observe media's code-designed meanings bombardment via semiotics, we can truly see how ideology works. The focal point of the present thesis is to reveal how determinant ideology reaches our everyday life via indicators. The present study is limited to how press photos, and images carrying codifications to generate meanings, are used in the press. We have to understand, all visual messages are produced within an ideological system and put into circulation in various press organs. What we see do not matter that much, unless we use the meanings generated there for changing the system we live in. Keywords: Semiotics, ideology, press photo, cinema