The Visual Formation of Archaeology in Local Newspapers

Archaeology is a popular subject which the public has the opportunity to meet in a variety of contexts. In addition to television documentaries, non-fiction and popular science magazines, archaeology has even played a significant role in the fictional world. Apart from these sources, you can also find archaeology in news reports where the newspapers or the tv-stations acts like mediators of archaeological news based on the archaeological work that is currently ongoing in our present time. Since it is now a demand on Swedish contract archaeology to communicate it's results, the news media often gets to play the role as the link between the archaeologists and the public. This paper is based on an analyse of archaeological news presented in local newspapers. The aim of the study was to investigate the visual mediation of archaeology to the reader. The results showed that the visual mediation of archaeological news is not only based on the selection of photos or illustrations. According to this survey, visual mediation can also be constructed using particular words that either describe the factual characteristics or words that alludes to the fictional world. Archaeological news that are channeled through local newspapers tend to reflect a narrow view of the archaeological discipline. The reason for this can probably be seen as a consequence of the relationship between archaeology and the society. In order to broaden the currently prevailing image of the archaeological discipline, this paper arguments for a much closer and more deliberate collaboration between local news media and archaeologists