Roland Barthes' Ideas on Messages in Images

Roland Barthes says in his essay "Rhetoric of the Image," that the word image can be linked to the ancient word imitari, which means imitation or copy. However, as Barthes explains, images do much more than simply duplicate objects and settings; they incorporate certain meanings and ideas into their subjects, sometimes without intending to. According to Barthes, there are three messages that can be present in an image - linguistic, coded iconic, and non-coded iconic, although he later argues that the last message is unachievable.
The linguistic message comes across in any written words that appear in the image, whether they be captions or labels. Barthes says that the linguistic aspect of an image serves two purposes - anchoring and relaying. Anchorage, in relation to text and image, helps to narrow down the broad connotations for that image. Barthe writes that anchorage helps the viewer "to choose the correct level of perception" (37). There are thousands of meanings that could be attached to a single image; text that anchors hopes to lead the viewer's thoughts in an intended direction. In advertisements and newspaper photographs especially, anchoring is a very common technique.
Text that relays in an image is less common than anchorage. Barthes gives the example of a comic strip to depict relay. In a comic strip, the text and the images work together to bring about an understanding of the whole piece. For example, if all the text were taken out of a comic strip, it would most likely appear as a confusing set of linked images. The situation and motives of the characters would probably be very diffficult to understand without the text. Likewise, a comic strip with only text and no pictures would also be disconcerting as some of the characters' actions are only understood from the images. In instances of relay, Barthes describes the text and the image as having a "complimentary relationship" (38).
The coded iconic message in an image is a culture-bound one. Objects, shapes, colors, background settings - anything that an image could possible depict can stimulate a variety of thoughts in people, but they all depend on each person's own experiences. For example, an image of a rose would likely call to mind thoughts of love and romance for most Americans. However, a person living in China would probably not associate the rose with love, because it's not seen the same way in Chinese culture as it is in American culture. Parts of an image don't have to be as obvious as a rose to conjure up certain ideas, either. The same effects can be gotten from much smaller details, such as color. Most Americans see pink as a female color; any advertisement that has a lot of pink in it will be approached with the mindset that it is geared towards females. Again, we can see that this is a culture-bound idea because Chinese culture does not necessarily see pink as a feminine color.
The last message Barthes writes about is the non-coded iconic. Simply put, the non-coded iconic message is what is left after the linguistic and coded iconic messages of an image are shed. The non-coded iconic message is not culture-bound and does not have the purpose of directing the thoughts of the viewer in any way. Barthes describes it as a pure image. He goes on to say that such an image is impossible. Every image holds some bias that will draw the viewers attention away from the direct subject. An image might come very close to achieving a non-coded iconic message, but the fact that it does appear as pure would have it labeled as such and associated to other cultural ideas of pureness. So, we can see that our culture and experiences make it possible to see the linguistic and coded iconic messages in an image, and impossible to see the pure, non-coded iconic message.