Semantic Structure of a Movie Hero Favored by Teenagers

Abstract

The authors used the psychosemiotic content analysis, projective method, personal differential, and factor analysis to study the semantics of a movie character preferred by teenagers. An incomplete-sentence test and a blog analysis revealed eight categories and nineteen corresponding analysis units based on the occurrence / non-occurrence of selected units in the text and their frequency. Osgood’s matrices revealed the measure of the random coincidence of classification units (≥ 70 %) with other categories. The integrative semantic structure of the favored movie hero was determined by such categories and content units as a) gender (male); b) appearance (look); c) intellect (mental abilities); d) interaction (relations with other people); e) character traits (moral and volitional qualities, attitude to others, attitude to work); f) actions (struggle for justice, readiness to do something for others); g) attitude to the family (willingness to sacrifice with something for the family).

Keywords

• semantics
• image
• film narrative
• film character
• content analysis
• randomness matrix
• factorial analysis