Abstract

HEIERLE VALERO, Cristina. The image of the nurse through the mass media: The written press. Index Enferm [online]. 2009, vol.18, n.2, pp.95-98. ISSN 1699-5988.

The social image of a profession is very conditioned by the way in which it is reproduced within the different communication media. It has been demonstrated that the mass media have a big power to reflect in the society the "reality" of the moment, giving versions and views of the dominant social culture. The aim of this article is: to explore and understand the image of the nurse transmitted by the newspapers. The design of this research is qualitative, descriptive; applying analysis and interpretation strategies to the images published by the El Pais newspaper depicting professional nurses from the period of July 2004 through July 2006. For the analysis, AIA was used. Results: 19 images showing nurses were collected. The nurses are not identified as individuals, but only perceived as a group within the work team. The image that this representation of the social collective in the media gives to every nurse is not very desirable, the media do not represent an image which helps to understand the abilities possessed or the work carried out by the nurses.

Keywords : Nurse image; image in the media; image analysis.