Näkyvä lapsuus : lapsuuskuva havainnointipäiväkirjassa ja television mainoskuvissa

Abstract

This research addresses images of childhood in the context of media and children´s everyday lives. Images of childhood reproduced by young children themselves and by their parents and day-care personnel, and in television advertising were investigated. Representations are studied as social, cultural and historical entities that are formed in the course of everyday life. The question is asked, what kind of childhood is (re)produced in children's everyday lives and in the media context, and how are the representations created using visual and textual materials connected with the cultural imagery of childhood? To collect child observations and descriptions of daily lives as provided by adults and children together, a so called observational child diary was created. The data consist of television advertisements (104 commercials, with 174 child performers), observational diaries (108 diaries, completed by 54 children, their parents and day-care personnel) and pictures and captions prepared for these diaries (496 units produced by children, their parents and day-care personnel). Analysis of the data and theory formation continued throughout the study, following the principles of adaptive theory. Various methods were used in the analysis. The results showed that while perceptions about the child were described by personal interpretations and impressions, cultural models were also employed. At the core of perceptions about childhood was a dual image, which is anchored in the binary storylines of agency and individuality and dependency and family-centricity. The child is simultaneously an unruly and innocent object, subject to devotion and control. Similarly, the child as a subject was found to be linked with either agency or dependency, as evidenced in the themes of family- centricity or individualism. These perceptions or images of childhood subdi- vide into four descriptions: the child of the future, the nurtured child, the child as a resource and the controlled child. In the narrative of individual agency, childhood is viewed as an investment in the future. The familistic narrative of dependency and family-centricity sees the child in a nostalgic light. The observational diary enabled the inclusion of personal representations as a subject of study and motivated the participating adults to pay closer attention to the child and child-related everyday interaction. It also rendered visible adult perceptions and details of daily life.