Content Analysis of Infographics with the Theme of Reading Based on the Lasswell's Communication Model

Infographics are considered a powerful communication and information medium in human-information interaction as well as in successful transmission of messages. The aim of the present study is to arrive at a model or framework based on the content of infographics published about reading, to discover and identify their content and also to introduce the capabilities and attractiveness of infographics as an interactive medium. It seeks to examine for whom and for what purpose these media are published, what their content is and what effects the reading infographics have on the target audience.

The present study is a qualitative one in which the qualitative content analysis method was used. The study population consists of 30 reading infographics published on the Pinterest website. All infographics were transferred to MAXQDA2020 software and then the content coding of each infographic began. These codes were then analyzed and modeled. Using the visualization package of the above-mentioned software and drawing the word cloud, various theoretical models of the generated codes as well as hierarchical ones were built to form the table of components and categories. Finally, the target audience, content and role of the infographics in promoting reading were identified.

Various models and frameworks can be built based on the research findings. The first model is the target audience model, in the sense that the audience of these media were primarily parents. Since the aim of these infographics is to promote reading among children, they have targeted parents as their audience. The second model can be drawn according to the content of the infographics. The content of these infographics is very diverse and a variety of models can be built according to it. Reading benefits, reasons to read, boyschr('39') reading habits, reading strategies for the children, fast reading strategies, reading levels, reading in the new age, the strategy of reading aloud books to encourage a child to read, ways to encourage reading, benefits of reading for the pleasure, promoting and encouraging reading among children and adolescents, reading benefits for the brain, and the importance of and reasons for reading and reading aloud books were among the most important topics addressed by these infographics. The third model is built on the role and influence of the infographics. The role of these media can be categorized as: informative, directive, notifying, promoting and propagandistic.

The findings indicated that the infographics published in the field of reading are replete with rich and useful information providing guidance to parents in encouraging children to read. Furthermore, the present study was the first to examine the content of infographics as emerging and influential media in Iran and abroad. It focused on the subject of infographics from the perspective of the communication sciences (Harold Lasswellchr('39')s model). Using the present research approach, one is able to carry out various studies in different fields as well as to analyze infographics with other topics by using the content analysis method and other communication models.