Erciyes İletişim Dergisi (Jan 2011)
TRACING DOMINANT DISCOURSES OF CHILDHOOD IN CHILDREN'S VISUAL IMAGES: A QUALITATIVE APPRAISAL OF NEWS MEDIA AND EDUCATION
Abstract
The literature on childhood involves various appraisals of childhood discourses fromvarious disciplines. The romantic view of passive children as needing affection andprotection is contrasted to the critical view of children that suggests defining children asempowered and active social agents. While these discourses of childhood are visible throughthe medium of written language, the elements of the discourses mediated through the visualimages remain uncovered. In addressing this gap in the literature, this study presents aqualitative appraisal of children's visual images in newspapers and education textbooks. Thestudy employs techniques from documentary research and offers a hybridized analysiscombining constructionist approaches and content analysis of visual materials. Traces ofdominant childhood discourses have been observed in the visual images of childrenappearing in selected newspapers and education textbooks.
