Norges viktigste bamse : En sosialsemiotisk multimodal analyse av brannvernkommunikasjon i barnehager

Abstract

This study is a social semiotic multimodal analysis of material used for fire safety education in Norwegian kindergartens. In 2009 the Norwegian Parliament decided to aim towards a goal of fewer occurrences of fires, and fewer people being the victims of fire related incidents. To reach these goals, they established a collective national effort for all associates working within the field of fire safety and communication. As a part of the information and communication side of the strategy, the Bjørnisproject was chosen as the new national main resource for fire preventing communication towards children. The aim was to create the world’s most effective fire safety education for kindergarteners. Several objects and learning materials profiling the Bjørnis figure was produces in relation to the project, and the materials was applied to fire education in kindergartens for the first time in 2018. The purpose of the materials was to communicate towards the children, the kindergarten teachers, and the parents. In addition, the materials were aimed towards grandparents as a secondary target group. This study explores how the learning materials is currently being used in kindergartens, and the materials ability to communicate towards multiple target groups simultaneously. The learning materials are studied through a social semiotic multimodal analysis, structured after Halliday’s three metafunctions. As the fire safety education in kindergartens is part of an extensive communication process, communication theory is applied to clarify the communicative situation. The results of this study clarifies how the Bjørnis learning resources is applying interpersonal resources to achieve a personal connection towards each of the target groups. This can further contribute to encouraging the target groups to redistribute the message. Fire can be a scary topic, especially for children. This study also exemplifies how the message of fire safety can be communicated towards children in a way that captures the essence of fire safety, while simultaneously being presented through an approach suitable for the youngest target group. Through the learning materials, this is partly done by the character Bjørnis, a character that easily captivate children and operates as a recontextualization of the fire safety theme.