While reading "Rhetoric of the Image" by Roland Barthes, we learn that every image is a re-presentation of something that already exists. Barthes even argues that some people believe that images come nowhere as close to conveying an image as actual language can do. However, for some reason, we see many images today, both familiar and unfamiliar, that we can derive meaning from.

Barthes goes on to explain that every image can convey meaning to us in three different ways: linguistic, coded iconic messages, and non-coded iconic messages.

Linguistic meanings come from things such as captions on the actual image of even just text on the labels of the things being presented in the image. Like Barthes says, these captions of words included in the images are important because they convey meanings or explain things the actual image might not represent to us. For example, in the Panzani advertisement for Italian food, we read words written in French, which signals that this is not American cuisine (34).

The coded iconic messages refer to the actual image itself. For example, in the Panzani ad we see images of noodles, tomatoes, peppers, sauces and so on. We see colors we consider to be indicative of Italy. Therefore, we image ourselves shopping for fresh produce in a market in Italy where we might be preparing a meal for our family. Because the images are somewhat familiar to us, we can draw other conclusions not soley based on what we see.

Finally, non-coded iconic messages represent a sort of "it is what it is" mentality. We see the same noodles, tomatoes, peppers and so on and think "oh, that is an image of noodles, tomatoes, and peppers coming out of a bag". There is no other meaning other than what we actually see (34).

It is definitely important to be aware of how we derive meaning form the images we see, becuase we hundreds of images every day. If we were driving down the highway looking at billboards without text, we might never get any meaning out of any of them. It is interesting to consider how important the details are in images, because one minor mistake could send the viewer in the wrong direction and the purpose of the image would have failed.