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0UDC 81'22
MeflHanHHrBHCTHKa. 2024. TOM 11, № 2
Semiotic analysis of the logos of the main online newspapers in the Western Balkans
F. N. Selimi, V. R. Hanoli
University for Business and Technology, Kalabria, Pristina, 10000, Kosovo
For citation: Selimi F. N., Hanoli V. R. (2024). Semiotic analysis of the logos of the main online newspapers in the Western Balkans. Media Linguistics, 11 (2), 267-281. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu22.2024.208
The decoding and interpretation of the meaning of the sign as a code located in the left corner of the newspaper and the function of the message given in that communication with the reader, is the subject of this research study. The study covers all aspects of the ideational/ representative function, revealing the meaning of the figures or photographs displayed in the left corner of six Western Balkan newspapers. The signs are decoded and clarified, revealing their meaningful messages. The analysis is done not only on the narrative process, but also on the conceptual process. To achieve this objective, an attempt has been made to respond to the semiotic resources used by newspaper designers in the compilation of the newspaper sign, as well as by interpreting the meaning they present and their objectives. The study is based on the case study method. Several different methods have been used in the study, such as: The method of analysis, of decomposition, and interpretation and the qualitative method, from which the research method is included in the analysis and the research instrument is defined focusing on the signs of the names of the newspapers as the object of this research. The study is channeled in analyzing the semiotic signs that appear in the names of online newspapers of the Western Balkans, and through these semiotic signs the cultural and regional diversity of this region is understood in a way. The findings show that the signs of the online newspapers of the Western Balkans mainly have red color, black letters and white background, which are related to their goals, that the writings are current and relevant to the public. Keywords: color, online media, message, sign, Western Balkans.
Problem statement
Various authors, such as Peirce, Barthes, Saussure, Eco, Bezemer and Kress etc., have treated the sign as a code that marks a signifier. While other authors have also dealt with concrete studies about newspaper signs, but all these studies are related to newspapers of a country or a province of a country, as Felicia [Felicia 2021] and Arafah, Firisia, Fitriani, and Shaheema [Arafah et al. 2023] while our study is about a case study of online newspapers of six Western Balkan countries, which relies on the theories of sign and color researchers, which are included in the references of this paper. The Western Balkans has a market of only 18.5 million inhabitants, who are of different nationalities, languages and cultures [Gomez et al. 2023]. In this study, the signs (logos) of the Online Newspapers of six countries of the Western Balkans were treated, including: Insajderi (Kosovo), Shqip (Albania), Alo! (Serbia), Analitika (Montenegro), Oslobodenje (Bosnia and Herzegovina),
© St. Petersburg State University, 2024
and Fakti ditor (North Macedonia), and what these signs represent and the colors with which they are written. Various media operate in these countries, including traditional printed ones, and according to Selimi [Selimi 2023] 18 newspapers are in Albania, 8 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 4 in Montenegro, 6 in North Macedonia and 27 printed newspapers daily in Serbia, while in Kosovo there is no printed newspaper [Selimi 2023].
While the number of online media is greater [Selimi, Zejnullahu 2023] and that try to build and complete a relationship that is both stable and loyal [Wind, Mahajan 2000], always keeping in mind the information of right. Seen from this prism, in the countries of the Western Balkans, Leone [Leone 2019], especially in the socialist countries, such as the former Yugoslavia but also Albania, online journalism is younger than online journalism in Europe and the world. According to Broussard [Broussard 2020] journalism was first introduced in the 1830s, but the evolution and further rise of Information Communication Technology made digital journalism increase its value and role in today's society [Broussard 2020; Chase, Shamo 2013]. While the next generation of audience may lead a digital life and not be familiar with printed newspapers [Smith 2011; Tapsell 2017; Fink, Schudson 2014]. Lynch and McGoldrick [Lynch, McGoldrick 2007] suggests that "critical realism" [Lynch, McGoldrick 2007: 6] forms the epistemological foundation of the model, meaning that although the world cannot be fully described as it is, it can be assembled as agreed upon [Wright 1992].
Entman makes a causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the thing described" [Entman 1993]. Among other things, it explains the absence of "certain key words, stereotypical images, sources of information, and sentences that provide sets of facts" [Entman 1993]. Isfandiyary also examined a semiotic analysis of the images on the movie poster A Series of Unfortunate Events, which examined the significance of the writing on the movie poster and learned their linguistic symbols, making a connection between it and linguistics and visual symbols [Isfandiyary 2017]. Therefore, the inclusion of some aspects of reality in media coverage is as crucial as their exclusion [Entman 1993]. This, because the aim is to develop knowledge about the structure and function to enable newspapers to critically reflect the frameworks and goals of specific acts of journalistic writing performance. This type of research tends to have an aim to research and analyze the signs or symbols that get their explanation through the analysis of their constituent elements. Indeed, the study covers all aspects of the ideational/repre-sentational function, because, thus, we wanted to identify the identifying signs of a visual turn taking into account its influence in the media sphere [Raspopova, Simakova 2020; Solomeina, Sumskaja 2019]. It is apparently narrative, but the process of narration reveals the meaning of the figures or photographs displayed in the left corner of the newspaper. Always trying to decode the codes placed in the signs and clarify the meaningful messages, which sometimes seem to be difficult to interpret. Thus, the analysis of this study is done not only on the narrative process but also on the conceptual process. Such an approach has been applied to other semiotic resources resulting in a 'multimodal grammatics' for semiotic phenomena [O'Halloran 2023].
This study aimed to investigate the meaning of the sign as a code placed before the name of the newspaper and to interpret how these signs communicate with the reader through their meaning and the message they convey. Also, the purpose of this work is: to break down the meaning of newspaper logos on the basis of semiotics. While our objectives are: 1) to analyze and interpret the logos of Western Balkan newspapers; 2) to present
their meaning on the basis of the sign and the signified; 3) to display the compatibility between the color of the sign-logo and their writings, — in order to achieve these objectives, an attempt was made to answer the following research questions: What do the logos represent and do their writings match the established logos? What semiotic resources were used by newspaper designers in the compilation of the newspaper sign? What meaning do these signs represent and do they coincide with the objectives of these newspapers? Since the study is limited only to the analysis of semiotic signs that appear in the names of Western Balkan online newspapers, and semiotic signs also appear in other areas of Western Balkan studies, such as novel covers, videos and others, it is recommended that researchers others to conduct more studies about the semiotic signs related to these aspects, to further understand their identity relationship within the regional diversity.
Background, the history of the issue
The name of a newspaper, for the reader, turns into an icon, a brand. A personal brand is a relationship that has an impact on prospects and customers" [Montoya, Van-dehey 2009; Rampersad 2009]. An icon is a sign in which the representative is perceived to resemble (i. e., has some of the qualities of) the object. Linguistics, for example, and regardless of the individual branches of theory considered, is widely seen as offering some of the most sophisticated tools for characterising complex semiotic artefacts and performances that we have. Thus, it is of little surprise that we not only have the move within systemic-functional linguistics, whereby discussions in the late 1980s sought descriptions of visual materials employing categories inherited from grammar [Kress, Leeuwen 2020; Usher 2010]. Signs solely exist to carry meaning that is to be interpreted [Zhao 2023]. There are also signs that do reach their receiver, but the receiver fails to interpret, or even to misinterpret, or to find any interpretation that is acceptable to the receiver himself. In Peirce's words, such a sign "refers to the object which it denotes simply by virtue of its own characters". Likewise, according to Saussure, the sign is built by the signified, which is the object (visual aspect) and the signifier, which is the word (auditory or spoken aspect). Semiotics necessarily connects us with two aspects, which are connotation and denotation. "Denotation is what all people see without relating it to their society, culture or ideology" [Bouzida 2014]. In other words, denotation is the underlying meaning of visual signs, which is the first level of meaning. "While connotation describes the interaction that occurs when the sign meets the feelings or emotions of their users and the values of their culture" [Fiske 1990]. If we relate the kinds of objects of study in these traditions to different facets of a single broader materiality, each with partially shared semiotic modes, it becomes possible to move more freely across the phenomena involved while maintaining their inter-connections. And, in fact, this needs to be done in any case because situations relying on combinations of products and processes are increasingly becoming the norm [Bateman et al. 2017; Bateman 2021]. Such signs undeniably carry meaning, but their meaning is reduced to 'irrelevance' [Leone 2019], because, "a sign is supposed to have an object or meaning, and the two correlates of the sign must be carefully distinguished. The former is the object of the sign; the latter is the 'meaning'" [Peirce 1974; Zhao 2023].
Among the researchers who have dealt with the study of the sign is Umberto Eco and according to him, semiotics is about everything that can be perceived as a sign [Eco 1976]. This means that Semiotics includes the study of the form of words, images, sounds,
gestures and objects. But the study of semiotics also means the study of communication and how each sign works in the mind of an interpreter to convey specific meaning in a given situation [Oladejo 2021]. Barthes, appreciated that he sees everything in society as meaningful, because Barthes does not focus only on the verbal phenomenon, but also on the non-verbal one, such as clothes, or cars, which can be understood as signs [Barthes 1968; Oladejo 2021]. The sign placed in the corner of the newspaper also has an advertising function, because, according to [Ananda et al. 2019] advertisements can also be found inside and they include, among others and websites, making it the most accessible and least complicated method of advertising. Molina, in a study of his, had researched outdoor advertising, especially how the "audience" is constructed as a public through the discourses of "public interest" and "social responsibility" [Molina 2006]. Meanwhile, Danesi derives the meaning of an X form, claiming that in the first place that X should be recognized as a sign. This means that signs have structure. Specifically, an X shape is a mark if it is distinctive and constructed in a predictable manner [Danesi 2004]. Considering the roles that the media has, and that according to Esser and Stromback, the media has several important roles, then it is implied that the media can interpret, control and mobilize [Esser et al. 2012] the readers. Therefore, each one independently tries to fulfill its obligation [Kovach, Rosenstiel 2007]. The name of a newspaper is its distinguishing feature, or to put it another way, what marks the newspaper. With reference to this, we have done nothing but enable its study through the semiotic aspect. Certainly, one helpful step is to develop a greater responsiveness to the results of empirical investigations [Zagidullina, Ebrahim 2021]. When internal languages do not relate back to empirical data, a certain "deafness" to data results because the constructs of the internal language are "insulated" from any results or patterns that examination of data might reveal — it is always possible to "fudge" the description in a way that leaves it intact. This echoes quite closely a number of critiques that have been brought against certain bodies of multimodality research [Ledin, Machin 2019]. We say that semiotics is the study of signs and their functions, therefore, even Saussure, has classified signs into signifiers and signified, where the signifier is related to the expression or the word that name and the signified is related to the content, that is, to the object that is named. Signs in semiotics not only include visual signs such as drawings, paintings, and photographs, but also include sounds, words, and body language. The study of semiotics focuses on the representation of signs, such as language, image, and object. "In visual semiotics, visual signs have more direct meaning than in language. Such representation not only shows the world, but also the interaction in it, which may or may not be accompanied by text, and will then constitute a kind of familiar text (painting, poster, magazine, newspaper, etc.)" [Leeuwen, Carey 2004].
The application of semiotics became clearer when Roland Barthes developed semiotics from linguistics to the visual image, such as photography, advertising, and motion pictures. Barthes stated that "Semiology aims to take in any system of signs, regardless of their substances and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds and objects" [Barthes 1968]. These are like an important system in communication. Roland Barthes also defined that "semiology is part of linguistics; to be precise; it is the part that covers the great meaningful units of discourse" [Barthes 1968]. Barthes used denotative and connotative "levels of meaning" to analyze signs in the visual object. He distinguished the analysis of signs into two: verbal signs and non-verbal signs. Verbal signs are the texts of the newspapers, the title, the names of editors, journalists, the date of publication of the newspaper and
many others, while the non-verbal signs are the images of the newspaper, which support the verbal signs to make the medium interesting. Further examples include the growth of argumentation theory to accept the long criticised possibility of visual argumentation [Rocci, Pollaroli 2018; Tseronis, Forceville 2017].
Also, a special place in the analysis is given to the color of the signs, because as Lyons says, each of the terms is not correct in its reference, although their relative position is determined in the lexical system. For example, the color red has been found to promote approach motivation in evaluating news articles [Kaspar et al. 2017]. Part of the meaning of each of these terms is the fact that relations between them are established, perhaps more accurately, of mediation... So, the knowledge of the meaning of the color sign necessarily presupposes both the knowledge of the meaning and its reference [Lyons 1968]. Wierz-bicka shares the same opinion on the role and importance of color in defining the sign "color" is not a universal human concept. It can certainly be created in all human societies, just like the concepts of "television", "computer" or "money", but despite the rapidly increasing contacts between human societies, the notion of color is not only far from universal, but that its role in human discourse is relatively limited [Wierzbicka 1996]. Authors know what basic color terms mean; and that they will build on that knowledge, but all the reader is told at the end is that the authors believe that the facts of color semantics can be modeled in fuzzy set theory and perhaps in some "powerful mathematical formalisms". "The linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image. The latter is not the material sound, a purely physical thing, but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression it makes on our senses. The image of the sound is sensuous, and if I happen to call it "material, it is only in that sense, and in opposition to it with the other term of association, the concept, which is generally more abstract" [Saussure 2016].
Charles Sanders Peirce (1974) has the same opinion, when he identified the so-called triadic model for the sign: a representative, the form (not necessarily physical) of the sign; an interpretant, the meaning made by the sign in the mind of the observer (this may be another sign); and an object, the one to which the sign refers. A more detailed explanation for this was given by Liszka who presents the criteria of connection, representation and definition of the object as a sign [Liszka 1996]. In fact, Liszka as the first criterion emphasizes "emphasizing the condition as a presentation" [Liszka 1996]. Therefore, he thinks that the base of the sign would have to represent or be related to the object in some aspect, which could be called its "presentative state" [Liszka 1996]. Then, this same author, claims that the sign should potentially define an interpreter, understood as a sign that translates and develops the original sign as well as having the possibility and ability to create another more developed sign, in some interpreter, which would articulate the original meaning and reference, breadth and depth. He conceives this as her "interpretive state" [Liszka 1996]. And finally, he sees the connection or representation of the sign with an object as the "representative state of the sign" [Liszka 1996]. Because, according to him, "this argues that all signs have a direction towards objects, or at least pretend to be about something" [Liszka 1996]. Liszka This researcher argues that each of the first three formal conditions of the sign is mediated through the others by the ability of the sign to represent, to be interpreted and to understand an object" [Liszka 1996]. Likewise, following logic, Roland Barthes stated that "connotation is itself as a system that includes the signifier (word), the signified (object) and as a process that unites the first with the second" [Barthes 1968].
Description of the research methodology
All the main work in this study is based on the analysis of the names and logos of the main newspapers in the countries of the Western Balkans, and to make this possible, several different methods have been used in the study, such as: The method of analysis, of decomposition, of analysis and interpretation and the qualitative method, from which the research method is included in the analysis and the research instrument is defined.
The study is based on the case study method. According to Cousin, case studies provide an in-depth and transparent view of a phenomenon under study [Cousin 2006]. Case studies can be of different designs that can be consistent with the research problem and goals. Furthermore, the method of analysis and analysis was also used for data collection purposes, as Okada and Suto, did [Okada 2003]. The data was collected from the first week of May 2023 until the middle of July 2023. After analyzing and breaking down the crackling, the authors tried to decode the signs. To unravel the meaning of the sign in Western Balkan newspapers, the authors conducted a two-step mixed-methods analysis. First, they analyzed the interaction between the name of the newspaper and the country the newspaper came from, as well as the matching of the writings with the meaning of the sign. They contextualized these findings with the second step, performing a detailed analysis of their meaning, always relying on the preliminary research of other authors, especially those who have dealt with the study of the sign and interpreting those meanings.
During the research process, the qualitative method was used, focusing on the sign of the names of the newspapers as the object of this research. Each of us finds himself as a subject of this study, who can read and identify the meaning of the signs in the names of the newspapers, grouping the signs in them, based on the necessary data and interpreting their meaning. This paper also has its shortcomings, because only six newspapers from six countries of the Western Balkans that are published in different languages were taken as a sample, so one newspaper was selected for each country. The selection was made based on the readability of these newspapers and that only their meanings were interpreted in the signs. It has not been evaluated whether they are adequate or whether the published news matches the signs of the newspapers. Therefore, other researchers, who want to deal with such research, could investigate this phenomenon that appears in these newspapers of the Western Balkans.
The object of the study are the names of some of the main newspapers in the countries of the Western Balkans such as in Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia, specifying and analyzing the features of the names of the newspapers based on the semiotic theories of Barthes, Saussure, Peirce, Eco, etc. The unit of analysis, which was used in this research, are linguistic signs, which have the meaning of denotation and connotation or of the interpreter in the names of newspapers. First, the newspaper was identified. Then the newspaper sign is identified. The sign was analysed, using the method of scribbling, the meaning was broken down. The sign and the colors that made up the sign were interpreted; the findings were discussed and finally conclusions were drawn. Peirce here added the criterion of interpretation. At this point, we take a closer look at the trichotomous object-sign-interpreter cycle mentioned earlier, and also pause to consider Peirce's "someone", the destination or other recipient of the message [Sebeok 2001].
All these methods have been established in order to analyze the hypothesis that: The signs of online newspapers of the Western Balkans mainly have red color, black letters and
white background. From the two research questions, what semiotic resources were used by the newspaper designers in the compilation of the newspaper sign and what meaning do these signs represent and do they coincide with the objectives of these newspapers, derived other questions such as: What signs have the online newspapers selected Western Balkans? What colors dominate those signs and what is their meaning?
Analysis of material and research results
As we pointed out, in an effort to analyze, interpret and give the meaning of the signs of the online newspapers of the Western Balkans, six newspapers have been analyzed, one for each country in this region. This, in order to answer the hypothesis and research questions for the analysis, interpretation and meaning of the semiotic signs used in the names of online newspapers of the Western Balkans, the results of which are presented below.
Insajderi newspaper in Kosovo
Figure 1 shows the name and symbol of the online newspaper in the Albanian language, in Kosovo Insajderi. The "insider" has selected a square of green color, in which there are two letters. As can be seen in the figure, there is an icon that shows the combination of the letters "I" and "n", which are small and attached to each other. These two letters "in" are white in green square and are the initials of the name "Insider". Above the letter "I" there is a right angle of 90°. Likewise, under the letter "n" there is a right angle of ninety degrees. The symbols of this newspaper are easy to remember. While immediately after the letters "in", the name of the newspaper Insajderi is written in black letters and in almost the same size as the "in" symbol. Below this name, also in black letters is written "online newspaper", but this name, which indicates the type of newspaper, is written in even smaller letters.
Otherwise, the background behind the letters is white, which means "clean" and that the Insajderi is a newspaper that reports correctly. The green color in the "in" symbol means the color of greenery or the first season of the year, which is Spring, when everything is fresh and new, and which also means that the Insajderi brings the newest and freshest happenings. "Color in a Western technical sense is not a universal concept; furthermore, it is contradicted, from which the substance of the color field is determined in different languages, in the first place, may depend on the associations of lexical elements with important cultural features of objects of natural environments" [Lyons 1968]. The black color in the designations Insajderi and "online newspaper" and the white background means black on white, meaning clean writing and that the newspaper writes and reports objectively about the events as they happen or as they happened.
Then, the first two initials "in" of the name "Insajderi" have other meanings. The first meaning can be explained and understood as something that comes from the expression in the English language "in", which means "in the newspaper" or "inside", because among the Albanian people, both in Albania and even in Kosovo and outside the borders of these countries, the use of English expressions included in the speaking of the Albanian language, but which are not included as expressions in the dictionary of today's Albanian
in,
Fig. 1. Newspaper Insajderi logo (Kosovo)
language, is very widespread. Whereas, the other meaning has to do with "trend" and "actuality". So, it is in trend and it is current, because, following the trends of the time and current affairs, the managers of this newspaper want to emphasize that every news published by this medium is in trend and is current. While the color green can be broken down as something new, that has innovation and that is fresh. And that means, the news has to do with actuality, it is "in" or "within" the framework of the reporting purpose of Insajderi newspaper, which brings freshness to the news.
Shqip newspaper in Albania
Figure 2 shows the name and symbol of the online newspaper in Albania, Shqip. Based on the fact that Montoya and Vandehey define personal branding as a clear, strong and convincing public image, the icon in Fig. 2 shows a full name "Shqip" which in English means: (Albanian) which is located in the second underlined part on the left side of the newspaper, under the headings [Montoya, Vandehey 2009]. The name of the newspaper is complete, starting with an uppercase letter and continuing with lowercase letters. Above the letter "I" is a red dot. Under the frame where the name of the newspaper is on the same side (left side) is a letter-symbol that resembles the letter "s" but is like a figure in which there are three spaces. The bend-body part of the letter "s" is separated from the upper and lower sides of the letter, consisting of a small circle above the body and a slightly larger circle on the lower side of the body. These circles are colored black. The filmstrip-like body, which is also black in color, appears to meander in both circles, as if orbiting those circles. This also has a meaning, which means that everything revolves around the region and around the world. Next to this sign-symbol are written the date, the day and the exact time of publication of the news in red and below it, the name "GAZETA SHQIP" in large letters and in black.
s
Shqip
Fig. 2. Newspaper Shqip logo (Albania)
Alo! newspaper in Serbia
Figure 3 shows the name and symbol of the online newspaper in Serbia, Alo! In the name of this Serbian newspaper, red dominates the background, while the letters are white. There are three letters that mean phone call. The first letter "A" is a capital letter while the other two letters "l" and "o" are small. At the end of the letter "o" there is a punctuation mark "!" (exclamation mark). This name with three letters "Alo!" and with the punctuation mark "ex-Fig 3 Newspaper Alo1 clamation point" is placed at the top of the newspaper on the left logo (Serbia) side.
The name "Alo" is derived from the onomatopoeia of the standard phone call in all languages "Alo" but what sets it apart is that it has also been given a "!" surprising point, that in the spelling of the language it means emotion, command or desire. With this, the leaders of the newspaper wanted to show that, through the news published in this newspaper, the reader experiences emotions, they satisfy the desire to read new news, and by offering new news, they simultaneously invite readers to follow
the news of published in this newspaper. Otherwise, in our life, this call "Alo!" it is used in everyday speech when we call someone who we meet on the street. So, it is a kind of invitation that is given to passers-by, friends, etc., whom we meet on the street and whom we want to greet or who we want to give an order to. Likewise, when they want to get the attention of others, speakers use "Alo!" and then continue speaking. The red background shows the warmth of the news. That what is written in the news is relevant and current according to the concept of meaning of color by Wierzbicka [Wierzbicka 1996]. Otherwise, it is short news, similar to those telephone conversations, which means that only the most important news items are given.
Analitika newspaper in Montenegro
Figure 4 shows the name and symbol of the Montenegrin online newspaper Analitika. It has the name "Analitika", which leads to an objective and means analysis, analytics and statistics. The first small white letter "a" is inserted in a red circle, while only the tail of the letter "a" is red. The other letters of this name are black, and the background is white. The tail of the letter "a" that is colored red has a specific meaning. This is because among the peoples of the Balkans there is a proverb that says: "The pear has its tail behind", which means that the consequences of an action come to light later. So, each ill-considered action has one or more consequences. The red circle means the actuality or hotness of the information. Letter "a" in white color inserted in that circle also means the first letter of the alphabet, where each media aims to be the first in information. The tail of "a" according to the red color, means the heat and actuality of the news. The other letters of this designation are black, lying on a white background. So, according to the designer of this name colored with these colors, everything written there is clear and correct.
In Fig. 4, the index view focuses on the name color of this Montenegrin online newspaper. There are three colors in the picture: white, red and black. White means pure, red is spirit and passion, and black symbolizes strength and creativity. These three colors are understood as a message to the readers, that the analytical newspaper is a platform that serves and transmits reliable information. "If we just say that white means, basically, 'what people call WHITE,' and black means 'what people call BLACK,' we fail to account for the fact that these words feel opposite, as well as the fact that they feel closely connected with darkness and light" [Wierzbicka 1996].
According to the appearance of the symbol, "analitika", it can be understood that this platform is an online newspaper, which every day serves readers with information about current affairs in the country, in the region and in the world. Finally, it means an integrated digital marketing platform, managed by a creative person and oriented towards content analytics of the event, including mathematical and statistical figures.
Oslobodenje newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Figure 5 shows the name and symbol of the online newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Oslobodenje. The "O" sign is melted on the left side of the newspaper in red. While inside the letter "O" there is a white color, which distinguishes the letter "O". This is, so to
Analitika
Fig. 4. Newspaper Analitika logo (Montenegro)
speak, a contrast between colors, but in that interior, a white "I" can be seen to have melted. The newspaper was founded in 1943, during the Second World War, that's why it has the red color as a genesis. Below the letter "O" is the number "80", but the number does not seem complete because the designation "godina-years" has been merged into it, which indicates the number of years of stability or age of the newspaper.
According to the symbol that appears, in the figure we distinguish two groups of words. When analyzing the sign "O" with its red lines and a white interior that looks like an "I", we get a second clue, which means the first letters "O" of the name "Oslobodenje" and the name "Information" or "Informative". Also, "O" — "Oslobodjenje" — shows the globe around the world. The red color symbolizes the warmth of the news, while the white color inside the letter "O", which looks like an "I" means the information that this newspaper carries as well as the clarity of the writing or the whiteness of the writing. Otherwise, the description of the newspaper states that this newspaper belongs to the center-left or liberal political orientation.
Fakti ditor newspaper in North Macedonia
On the front page of the newspaper Fakti ditor, which has been established in Macedonia and in the diaspora, we have the distinguishing mark "fd" which are the two initials of the first name and the second name "Fakti ditor". These two letters "fd" are underlined in red. The second small letter "d" seems to have another meaning. Because it is designed in such a way that it looks like two letters: "o" and "l". And when they stick to each other with the first letter, it is understood as the expression "fol-speak". Both of these starters are red in color, while inside the component part of the letter "d", or what looks like a small "o", it also looks like an eye or target where there is a black and white world map.
As can be seen in Fig. 6, the "fd" starters are designed in red, which in journalism would be understood as a hot color. This hot color represents hot news, current information. The dot at the end of the newspaper mark "fd" means that the newspaper with the news has hit the spot, that is, that the news is of general interest, current, important and useful and that can raise debate. The black and white world map, which appears inside the lowercase letter "d", or which is seen as an "o", as an eye or as a target, means that the Fakti ditor has the whole world as its target and hints that the news is from around the world and is published for the whole world.
Discussion
This study qualitatively examined the reporting of the sign, its influence on the form and presentation of six major newspapers in the Western Balkans. For Peirce and later Bezemer, the sign was a general concept, of which there are a very large number of species, multiplying by a trichotomous basis of icon, index, and symbol, each defined according to the relation of the category of the sign to its object in a context certain [Peirce 1974; Beze-
Fig. 5. Newspaper Oslobodenje logo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
fd.
Fig. 6. Newspaper Fakti ditor logo (North Macedonia)
mer, Kress 2016]. As argued in Bateman, characterising multimodal situations in terms of their material constitution can be done by imposing several dimensions of material that successively slice complex material situations into 'smaller' material configurations [Bateman 2021]. The countries of the Western Balkans have a long and rich history, in the promotion of which, an important place has been played by the media in these countries [Leone 2019]. According to Media Freedom1, with EU membership, the factor of media freedom in these countries is closely related, but the decline of media freedom in the Balkans is eroding the European values of democracy and the rule of law and is creating a ripe climate for disinformation that is cultivates anti-EU and anti-Western sentiment across the region [Horrocks 2021], acording Peter Horrocks quotes. Given Peirce's definition, the signs that we see in the online newspapers of the Western Balkans are so-called "interpretative" signs, which means interpretative signs, that is, they are interpreted as "the meaning or branching of a sign, as it is formed into a sign of further, interpreting it" [Peirce 1974]. The signs (logos) of the newspapers of these countries, therefore, aim to interpret a certain aspect by making it mediatic [Ledin, Machin 2019].
A sign, representative, is the primary component that stands in such a true triadic relationship with the second component, called its object, that it is able to establish the third element, called its interpretant, to accept the same relationship triadic with its object, which rests in the same object [Peirce 1974]. Such signs undeniably carry meaning, but their meaningfulness is reduced to 'insignificance' [Leone 2019], because, "a sign is supposed to have an object or meaning and the two correlates of the sign have to be carefully distinguished" [Kress, Leeuwen 2021]. Governments in the countries of the Western Balkans equate critical journalism with unconstitutional activity and describe independent media as purveyors of fake news that are involved in the fight against it. In this case newspaper logos or signs indicate that where they cannot compete with online news media based on speed, newspapers are distinguishing themselves by increasing the depth of information, analysis and coverage of trends not published elsewhere [Usher 2010; Zagidullina, Ebrahim 2021]. Also, the studies of Fink and Schudson [Fink, Schud-son 2014] were based on the sampling of the front page, where as the representative content of the newspaper, the front page will continue to be examined as the standard content of the newspaper [Rocci, Pollaroli 2018]. The sign or logo of these newspapers, as defined by Zhao [Zhao 2023], is necessarily related to their content and what is at the center of the news they convey [Kaspar et al. 2017]. Content analysis studies often do not address the issue of stylistic changes in news writing over time, even though such change may call into question the validity of news content analysis [Lacy et al. 2015; O'Halloran 2023]. This perhaps forced newspapers to change in an unprecedented way, differentiating their product [Tseronis, Forceville 2017]: What they can't compete in time, they make up for in depth in analysis and background information, unique coverage, narrative richness and better visuals, all of which were evident on the front page2 [Usher 2010].
1 Media freedom in the Western Balkans is a geopolitical issue (2021). Euractiv. Retrieved from https:// www.euractiv.com/section/media/opinion/media-freedom-in-the-western-balkans-is-a-geopolitical-issue/.
2 The future of news magazines (2006). Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.journalism. org/2006/07/31/the-future-of-news-magazines/.
Conclusions
This study achieved the goal of investigating the meaning of the sign as a code placed before the name of the newspaper, analyzing how these signs communicate with the reader through their meaning and the message they convey. So, to achieve the objective of the study, it gave answers to the research questions: What semiotic resources were used by newspaper designers in the compilation of the newspaper sign? What meaning do they represent, or how much do these signs coincide with the objectives of these newspapers?
The hypothesis, that the signs (logos) of online newspapers of the Western Balkans, (that is, red, white, and black) are related to special features that mark certain aspects of the reality of these countries, closely related to the task and mission of the media, addressed in these newspapers. Also, the logos or signs are a reflection of the efforts for these countries to be an organic part of the European Union (green, for example, as hope for the realization of this dream). On the other hand, the colors also represent special historical aspects related to these countries, since they are all countries with a communist past. Also, the results showed that the use of these colors is also related to national features, such as the dominant colors in the Shqip newspaper in Albania, which are the representative colors of the national symbols, which show that the use of these colors of the flag strengthens the national identity and implies also their origins.
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Received: October 10, 2023 Accepted: February 11, 2024
Authors' information:
Ferid N. Selimi — Dr. Sci. in Journalism, Associate Professor; ferid.selimi@ubt-uni.net Votim R. Hanoli — Dr. Sci. in Communication, Associate Professor; votim.hanoli@ubt-uni.net
Семиотический анализ логотипов популярных онлайн-газет
на Западных Балканах
Ф. Н. Селими, В. Р.Ханоли
Университет бизнеса и технологий,
Косово, 10000, Приштина, Калабрия
Для цитирования: Selimi F. N., Hanoli V. R. (2024). Semiotic analysis of the logos of the main online
newspapers in the Western Balkans. Медиалингвистика, 11 (2), 267-281.
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu22.2024.208
Объектами данного исследования являются декодирование и интерпретация смысла знака как кода, размещенного в левом верхнем углу газеты, а также функции передачи сообщения в этой связи с читателем. Исследование охватывает все аспекты идеологической и представительной функции, раскрывая смысл фигур или фотографий, расположенных в левом верхнем углу шести газет на Западных Балканах. Декодирование и объяснение знаков позволяют получить их полный смысл. Повествование и концепция также подвергаются анализу. Для достижения этой цели делается попытка найти ответы на семиотические ресурсы, которые используют дизайнеры газет при создании их логотипа, а также объяснить смысл, который они представляют, и их цели. Исследование основано на технологии кейс-стади, aвтор использовал различные методы, включая анализ, разложение и интерпретацию. Кроме того, использовался качественный метод исследования, а инструмент поиска был определен с акцентом на знаках названий газет, которые были объектом исследования. Изучение семиотических знаков в названиях онлайн-газет Западных Балканн помогает понять культурное и реги-
ональное разнообразие региона. Результаты показывают, что логотипы веб-газет Западных Балканн в основном используют красный цвет, черные буквы и белый фон, что соответствует их целям, поскольку материалы в этих газетах являются актуальными и релевантными для аудитории.
Ключевые слова: цвет, интернет-СМИ, сообщение, знак, Западные Балканы.
Статья поступила в редакцию 10 октября 2023 г.; рекомендована к печати 11 февраля 2024 г.
Контактная информация:
Селими Ферид Н. — д-р наук в журналистике, доц.; ferid.selimi@ubt-uni.net Ханоли Вотим Р. — д-р коммуникативистики, доц.; votim.hanoli@ubt-uni.net
