ABSTRACT

All images have the ability to transmit powerful and often unconscious messages through a culturally complicated system of signs and symbols, but their interpretation ‘is not a question of mechanically reacting to stimuli’2; rather the receiver must learn to read the signs. A child’s perception of these signs and symbols is socially determined and by the time she has entered the primary school her image vocabulary is extensive. For

example, most primary school children recognise that the genre of cartoon signifies that any violence which is portrayed is unreal, and that the images immediately communicate to reassure.3 As Hodge and Tripp point out, the very large gap between the fantastic nature of cartoons and reality prevents any confusion.