Visual Social Publications in the Newspapers of Greek Primary Schools: A Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

In the present study we investigate, record and discuss icons with asocial content, their type, their signifieds and ideological significations,wishing to extract useful conclusions regarding the use of icons in schoolnewspapers as vehicles of social messages. The research material comprises intotal 252 images with a social content found in the columns of schoolnewspapers, whereas the collection of the sample was based on the study of 64school newspaper issues coming from 32 titles of primary school newspapers fromall over Greece that were published in 2004-2006. All in all, it appears that social iconic publications create theeditors’ vivid interest, as they find their way mostly in the inside pages ofnewspapers. The analysis of the icons as to their signifieds places emphasis onthe dominant ideological forms: the signifieds of historic anniversaries,school life and environmental education come before the others, which in turnsuggests the dominant ideological trends, history-school-environment/ecology:a triptych that emerges through the social-iconic choices of those involved inpublishing school newspapers.Keywords: visual social publications, schoolnewspapers, semiotic analysis, students-journalists