Representation Of Children In Print Media From The Perspective Of Social Constructionism And Media-Language (Example Of Research In Croatia And Bosnia And Herzegovina)
Ines Perić Ph.D.
Mirela Müller Ph.D Assistant Professor
Ireland-Dublin, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek
Keywords: social constructionism, media, stigmatisation, discrimination, children in print media
Abstract
Based on the theory of social constructionism, the paper brings into relation images of children in the society with the media as constructors of reality. On the basis of that relationship generalizations are made on which the leading idea of the paper, about children as a stigmatized and discriminated group in the media, is based. The aim of the research is to determine pedagogical implications of the way children are presented in two most widely read daily newspapers in the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina over a period of one year, to analyse the presence of stigmatization of children in print media and to identify the difference in the way children are presented in the two countries. Holistic, combined method of media content analysis and a comparative method are used. The research answered set research questions: does the presentation of children in daily newspapers contribute to the stigmatization of children in the society, are children in daily newspapers discriminated on the basis of their age and is there any difference in the stigmatization of children in daily newspapers in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The construct of the child which dominates in Croatian and Bosnian and Herzegovinian media is an antipode to the new pedagogical image of the child, which is why pedagogy has to raise awareness and question dominant personal theories of people who work with children through education and training, but also it has to affirm more strongly the construct of the competent child in media discourse.