Socialinio darbuotojo įvaizdis žiniasklaidoje ; Social woker image in media

Abstract

Social work is a quite new expanding profession trying to solve different social problems. A social worker attempts to relieve the interaction of society and separate individuals in the space of their problems. The theme of this master's work is actual because media presenting the various information about social worker mostly lets to form the society opinion which is adverse for social worker. The purpose of research is to reveal the formative image of social worker in the biggest Lithuanian daily papers. These goals are set to achieve the purpose: to discuss the professional work peculiarities of social worker; to present the role of media in society opinion formation; to reveal the characteristics of social worker's image presentation in the biggest Lithuanian daily papers. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods are combining in the researching part of work. Daily papers "Respublika", "Lietuvos žinios", "Lietuvos rytas" and "Vakaro žinios" are chosen for the analysis of social worker's image in media. Daily papers period from 1st January, 2010 till 31st December, 2011 is chosen for research. 144 articles about social workers were found and analyzed during this work. During the qualitative research the image was analyzing through distinguishing implicit positive and negative attitude categories and meaningful subcategories. The possible positive image of social worker was revealed through providing social services, worker's peculiarities and the requirements of government institutions. The possible negative image was influenced by social worker's asocial behaviour client groups, negative relationships with clients and society evaluation. The analysis of research has proved that in daily papers the social worker is described in positive and negative possible aspects.