Social Semiotics Analysis of the Dollar’s Visual Structure

Banknotes are social and semantic texts with the power of visual impact, which governments have often used to achieve cultural and political hegemony. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the visual structure of dollar bills and the social context of the United States community and to examine how social developments in US history have affected changes in the structure of dollar bills. The social semiotics approach of Kress and Van Leeuwen is the basis of this descriptive-analytical study. The documentary and qualitative data of this research were collected by the purposive sampling method. According to this analysis results, the dollars represent only the face of white male politicians, and the most representation belongs to persons affiliated with the Republican Party. The common symbols and design of the dollars have changed little over the last century, indicating policymakers’ emphasis on building a stable picture of the country’s economic system. The framing of politicians’ images on old banknotes reflects their distance and distinction from their audiences, but in newer dollars, these frames have been deliberately removed to represent a sense of closeness to the people. This change represents that banknote illustrators are following the social developments.