This study begins by explaining the concept of the sign and the ideological role of signs and media texts in contemporary culture. Advertisements, glossy magazines, daily newspapers, various TV programmes and recent cinema films are all scrutinised, with each chapter containing a close analysis of particular examples. Key strands in critical theory, which are allied to semiotics, such as ideology, psychoanalytic theory and feminist criticism, are also explored. Media semiotics moves on to discuss the challenges to established semiotic methods posed by post-structuralist theory, audience studies and postmodernism, and considers the new media including the interactive computer game, Internet and the World Wide Web.