“Being a baby elephant is not easy” : How children are portrayed in Austrian information campaigns concerning the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract: 2020 was the year a pandemic hit the world. Along with that, media was swamped with information about death numbers, epidemiological facts, and an urge to inform people on the current situation. The information campaigns by the Austrian government were no exception. Highlighted in these campaigns were children, especially when it came to the relationship with grandparents or presenting how to keep distance through the display of a baby elephant. A visual analysis of information campaigns was conducted in order to find out how children were presented in these campaigns and to further identify what messages were conveyed in relation to children. Four themes emerged during the research process that gave answers to the research questions posed. The results show that children were shown in relation to their grandparents or their family. Moreover, they were often used to present innocence and in need of protection, but paradoxically also as socially responsible over the health and well-being of the older generation. Often so, they were used mimicking the voice of the initiators of the campaign “Look after yourself, look after me” and even used in relation to distance keeping where a child in a baby elephant costume “taught” adults how to keep distance. Research on children’s representation in media in relation to a pandemic is rather slim and there is an urgent need to gain more knowledge in this area, since this would broaden the awareness of how children are represented and seen by a society the reside within.