ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses specifically on representations of Social Work and social workers in media images. Images are produced for particular audiences, and their exhibition often both reflects this as well as guides their production. Social Work as a profession arose as a result of the needs of Western modernity; it is a child of modernity itself. The discursive demand for specialisation has led Social Work to being compartmentalised, but also its practitioners defining much of its work around this, primarily as child protection workers. Media and its images are part of such a milieu and the complete picture is far more complex than simply that Social Work is negatively regarded by all media. Much of the discussion on images has remained on the images themselves – representation – rather than what audiences 'do' with them. Social Work is, actually, a distinct professional activity that is more than one set of specialised activities; we are more than child protection.
