Mixed-Up Messages: Ambiguities in Newspaper Representations of the Young Child

Abstract

The single most prominent feature of a child's status as a child is its physical size. And overwhelmingly, the single most prominent descriptor of physical size in childhood is the word ‘little’. When newspaper representations of children and childhood are examined for their focus on children's diminished size, two broad groups of conflicting themes emerge: endearment versus depreciation. The size-value tensions which arise in these examples of everyday discourse in newspaper texts are explored in the present paper for their impact on our images of the young child.