Journal of Visual Political Communication - Current Issue
Volume 10, Issue 2, 2023
- Articles
-
-
-
The visual storytelling of war: Mobilizing Tatik and Papik
More LessThis article focuses on the visual storytelling of war by studying the ‘We Are Our Mountains’ monument-related narration on Instagram. I analysed 371 posts, their comments and fourteen interviews with Armenian content creators to examine multimodal wartime storytelling and to shed light on how aesthetics are deployed in different war stages. During war, the Armenian content creators framed (and experienced) the monument as ‘beautiful’ to boost morale and mobilize external audiences. Post-war, stories turned to ‘working through’ and ‘building-up’, with aesthetics used for in-group affinity. However, online storytelling also includes unintended audiences; Azerbaijani audiences inserted themselves into the shared stories, and contested the aesthetic value of the monument, thus further highlighting the relevance of aesthetics in war-related storytelling.
-
-
-
-
Visual political communication research: A literature review from 2012 to 2022
By Xénia FarkasMore than ten years ago, Schill’s (2012) review article was published on the visual aspects of political communication aiming to increase research in this field. It seems that scholars have reacted to this call in the last decade. The present article argues that in the last ten years, visual political communication (VPC) has been affected by technological advances, and with the proliferation of the internet and social media, political communication has become even more visual. As Schill’s (2012) article predated this period, a new review seems to be timely. To that end, a combination of a systematic and narrative review is provided to highlight the results and developments in this area. Findings suggest that the rise of social media has brought changes to VPC, which have been reflected in the literature by focusing on key concepts in contemporary political communication: personalization, populism, gender-related issues, and the effects of VPC on citizens, separately on social media and in television.
-
-
-
Visual depictions of the Rohingya crisis: Exodus, cultural othering, genocidal aggression and audience aversion to graphic portrayals
Authors: Julie Grandjean and Erik P. BucyThe Rohingya people of Myanmar (formerly Burma) have been described by the UN as the ‘most persecuted ethnic group in the world’. Yet despite recognition of the Rohingya’s attempted eradication as a genocide, this humanitarian crisis is rarely the subject of intensive news coverage and largely flies under the radar of international media. When the Rohingya’s plight does appear in the news, media coverage tends to portray this religious and ethnic minority as a displaced people fleeing their native Myanmar rather than depicting the reality of genocide and the gruesome visual truth of systematic, violent elimination. To document how an ongoing genocide is visually framed in news and understood by audiences, this article develops an inventory of visual frames used in coverage about the crisis, then employs a ‘picture prompt’ method of soliciting responses from viewers to document how these frames are received and interpreted. Analysis of 2132 responses from 533 online participants reveals stark differences in viewer evaluations of more graphic portrayals compared to mundane depictions of the crisis. The study summarizes the consequences that viewer interpretations of images of conflict and mass displacement can have for humanitarian support and perceptions of event severity.
-
-
-
Visual overload: The influence of broadcast social media visuals on televised debate viewing outcomes
During the 2016 US presidential primary debate cycle, CBS displayed tweets alongside presidential candidates on-screen. Using the elaboration likelihood model and social identity theory, the current study reveals the incorporation of Twitter comments and metrics may have hindered normative outcomes of debate viewing. A mixed-method approach consisting of content analysis and an eye-tracking intervention was used to understand the effects of including socially networked information in televised debates. Findings show that including information from social media on-screen appeared to displace elaborative energy, limiting what viewers learned about candidate policies, and leaving them feeling disillusioned about politics. Polarization seemed to increase, while viewing tweets on-screen also related to being less persuaded by candidates. The inclusion of on-screen social media visuals during televised debates may overwhelm the viewer’s ability to process and retain democratic information.
-
-
-
Flexible populist ideology during Russia’s war in Ukraine: A multimodal analysis of internet memes
Authors: Katarina Pettersson, Jari Martikainen and Inari SakkiThe social media have become an increasingly important vehicle for populist mobilization and persuasion. In this study, we explore how populism as a flexible ideology becomes articulated and reconstructed in times of international political turmoil. More precisely, we focus on the multimodal construction of right-wing populist ideology in the political memes produced by the Finns Party during Russia’s war in Ukraine in the spring 2022. Our multimodal discourse analysis shows that the memes constructed national security and sovereignty, (gendered) anti-elitism, and anti-refugee arguments through drawing upon the ‘Russian threat’ as a central discursive resource. Further, it demonstrates how the specific features of internet memes – humour, entertainment, open-endedness and interactivity – can be creatively utilized in populist political communication. The results of this study have implications for the scholarly understanding of populism as a ‘thin’ and flexible ideology, and for internet memes as a channel for political persuasion and mobilization.
-
-
-
Is Instagram changing the agenda for political self-personalization? Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen’s professional and public private self on Instagram
More LessWith the advent of digital media, politicians have increasingly turned to social media platforms to personalize themselves independently from the mass media. With a focus on three dimensions of self-personalization, that is, the public professional self, the public private self and the use of Instagram practices, this study explores the Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen’s strategic visual self-personalization practices on Instagram during a two-year period following her election on 27 June 2019. Firstly, based on a visual content analysis, this study sheds light on how the prime minister presents her professional and private self and how she exemplifies a change in political self-personalization practices using the platform-specific features that Instagram has brought to political communication. Secondly, a quantitative data collection of user engagement suggests that private and softer political content especially succeed in engaging the followers.
-