Visual Images and Risk Messages: Commemorating Chernobyl. Åsa Boholm*
This article discusses a neglected field in the study of the perception and communication of risks. It is argued that visual images in the media, particularly photos, convey forceful symbolical messages. The potential of visual images to communicate emotive and intuitive knowledge, imbuing it with veracity and permitting projection of identification, makes them an effective medium for social constructions of messages about risks. In April 1996 the ten years anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor accident produced a considerable amount of visual presentation in the media in the European countries. This material is analysed from a perspective of symbolic anthropology and semiotics and it is argued that such qualitative interpretative approaches can add to our understanding of how risk messages are socially and culturally construed in modern society.
*CEFOS, Göteborgs Universitet, Box 720, S 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden
The research on which this article is based is funded by the Commission of the European Communities (DG12-WSME, F14P-CT95-0016).
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