Social representations of teachership based on cover images of Finnish teacher magazine: A visual rhetoric approach

Abstract

Media plays an important role in the formation of social representations. This study examines the cover images of Finnish Teacher Magazine published by the Trade Union of Education as means of communicating social representations of teachership among its readership consisting of teachers and student teachers. In order to critically discuss the structure of the cover images and their implications in terms of teachers’ professional identity, the study applies a visual rhetoric approach to the study of visually mediated social representations. The data consist of 138 cover images of Teacher Magazine between the years 2013 and 2017. The analysis of visual rhetoric was conducted using content analysis and semiotic analysis that provided means of examining both the visual form of the cover images and meanings communicated through them. Even though this study detects a variety of social representations of teachership, it also identifies a highly homogeneous type of teacher throughout the imagery, which is understood to present the members of the Trade Union with an ideal type of their profession. Consequently, cover images of Teacher Magazine appear to be vehicles of inclusion and exclusion, strengthening certain social representations of teachership and marginalizing others.

How newspaper images position different groups of people in relation to theCOVID‐19 pandemic: A social representations approach

“…Hence, newspaper images may not only disseminate but also naturalise social representations of different age groups (Moscovici, 1961/2008, 1984). The usefulness of the analysis of visual rhetoric in social representations research is based on its capability to unfold the constructed nature of images and the social representations they establish and maintain (Martikainen, 2019). This is especially important for news photography in particular, since these images are often regarded as replicas of reality and objective evidence of news (Banks, 2012; Zelizer, 1995).…”

“…The analysis of visual rhetoric focusses on images' contents, form and functions (Danesi, 2017; Foss, 2005), and for this reason, it is congruent with the field of social representations research (Hakoköngäs & Sakki, 2016; Martikainen, 2020). Regarding the form of the image, the analysis of visual rhetoric not only pays attention to people, objects and environments but also to the visual means of expression – such as form, colour, composition, viewing angle, light and shadow, proximity and framing – that create a stance regarding the people, objects and environments (Foss, 2005; Martikainen, 2019). In our study, we focussed on exploring these means of visual expression as visual rhetorical strategies that position people in different age groups in particular ways.…”

“…The analysis of visual rhetoric combines content analysis and (social) semiotic analysis (Martikainen, 2019). First, the visually perceivable elements in the image are analysed by content analysis, paying attention to the subject matter and means of visual expression (Rose, 2016).…”

Knowledge About Family and School Contribution in Academic Achievement: The Context of Schooling and Social Representations in India

“…People adaptation with the prevalent notions and thinking beyond the boundary of common sense is required to explain multidimensional picture of any attribute. Previous research applied social representation theory to understand educability (Raty & Snellman, 1998), intelligence (Miguel, Valentim, & Carugati, 2010), academic achievement and failure (Sinha & Mishra, 2015), and teachership (Martikainen, 2019). This paper showed a polysemic understanding of family and school contribution where roles and identity matters.Many decades of research on the impact of family and schooling on the students' future achievement systematically identified the correlates without much emphasis on how any knowledge comes to our social reality and becomes part of our self.…”

Developed but close to nature: the image of Finland in the National Geographic Magazine from the 1900s to the 2010s

“…The role of the plain text is to deliver the substance, while the photographs provide an emotional impact, and the captions connect the two previous elements. Martikainen (2019) has argued that visual journalism is a combination of compositions aiming to serve certain intentions, and the researcher should pay attention to exclusion and inclusion of information in the journalist communication.…”