On one level, image refers to a representation or likeness. For instance, a photograph, a print or a moving film is said to to capable of reproducing something that exists in reality. In media usage, there is a technical language around the quality of the image produced. On a different level, 'image' can have a mental or symbolic conception.
Image here invokes ideas or feelings about something or someone.
A third, recent, and now very common utilization of the term draws heavily on the latter of these previous understandings. Image' here is connected to the artificial construction of a public identity. It links to the idea of an attempted control over the way others regard us and to the idea of reputation. Specifically, the Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman has written extensively on behaviour in public places and 'impression management'. BC Further reading E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life .