Konstruowanie reprezentacji społecznych naukowca w tytułach prasowych
Constructing the Social Representation of the Scientist in the Press Titles

Summary/Abstract: RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article was to describe the process of construction of a social representation of a scientist on the basis of press titles with the application of the basic analytical tools developed for the social representations theory. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The main problem was to identify and analyse the way in which authors of press titles localised the designation scientist in the context field and how it could affect the potential social representation. Two aspects of the content of the structure of social representations were especially interesting, namely the cognitive and the affective aspect. In order to gather material, electronic editions listed as the most popular, opinion-forming weekly newspapers and articles published by PAP [Polish Press Agency – translator’s note] in years 2014-2017 were chosen. About 3000 titles were appointed through threading with the unit scientist. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Having initially defined the objective of the paper and presented the research assumptions, eleven types of anchoring of the unit scientist was characterised in the titles. The ways of objectification of scientist on photos were also described. This created a basis for an indication of the possible elements enabling the construction of a social representation of a scientist. RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis of the elements constructing the context field allowed to distinguish the crucial components of the nomination scientist in press titles and then develop a potential, cognitive image of a scientist. The scientist may be perceived as a person making useful and ground-breaking discoveries as well as having unique abilities, high competence and dealing with complicated tasks, deserving esteem, recognition and respect and rarely as someone who cannot be trusted etc. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The conclusions obtained in course of the conducted analyses prove that the potential social representation of a scientist is to a great extent concordant with the high recognition for a university professor, expressed in the research on the prestige of professions. The innovative application of the social representations theory in the research on image offering an interesting analytical tool should be noticed.

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