Abstract
The call for researchers to pay more attention to visuals in the study of political communication is not new (for a synoptic account, see Barnhurst and Quinn 2012), but the examination of visuals remains underdeveloped, especially when compared with the focus on texts, for example. Indeed, the editors of this book note there have been few works that focus “on the various ramifications of the visual in political communication” (Lilleker et al. 2019: 6). This edited collection joins previous attempts to draw our attention to the analysis of images (see, for example, Grabe and Bucy’s 2010 work on image bites), but it is especially timely because of the growth and almost ubiquitous use of social media which, as the editors note, “have created novel ways of producing, disseminating and consuming visual products” (Lilleker et al. 2019: 5). This volume provides “a theoretically driven empirically grounded survey of the central role visual communication plays in political culture” in contemporary democracies (Lilleker et al. 2019: 5), with the goal of invigorating the study of visuals. The volume examines the theory and methods that underpin the study of visuals as well as providing a series of substantive case studies, which look at the activities of established political communicators in the context of campaigns and governance, and the use of “visuals from below” by civil society actors outside the political establishment. The collection is organized into four parts.
Part 1 examines the theoretical and methodological issues involved in researching visuals and sets out the “basis for understanding the role of visuals” (Lilleker et al. 2019: 6). The opening substantive chapter by Messaris places the study of visuals in political communication within the historical context of the development of new technologies, focusing on three technological developments. In Lilleker’s chapter, the focus shifts to the impact of visuals. Lilleker explores the positive and negative power of visuals in attitude formation. Visuals offer a cognitive short cut to support decision making but also allow simplistic thinking which can lead to cognitive mistakes. The chapter by Geordimos puts the study of visual political communication in a wider methodological context of visual research methods. He argues visual analysis has a long way to go and sets out an imaginative research agenda to progress research. Pauwels’ chapter also examines visual research methods. It provides a comprehensive overview of methods for analyzing the “visual dimensions of political phenomena” it explores the various “methods, techniques and technologies” (Pauwels 2019: 92) available to analyze political communication.
The focus of the second section is a series of empirical studies. Johansson and Holtz-Bacha’s illuminating study explores visual negativity in election posters in Germany and Sweden, finding it has increased overtime in both countries. The chapter by Russmann et al. explores the meaning and iconography of politicians’ Instagram postings during Swedish and Norwegian elections. They suggest that Instagram affects the nature of campaign communication leading to more personalized messages that convey a sense of closeness during the campaign but also lead to an over simplification of party messages. The chapter by Novelli explores visual political communication in Italian election campaigns. He examines the transformation of campaign visuals across campaigns. Focusing on Italians politicians, the chapter identifies trends toward a greater importance of social media visuals in the self-promotion process. Visuals in these platforms also tend to be simpler “less sophisticated and elaborate” but “no less effective” (Novelli 2019: 160).
The third section examines the role of visuals in governance. The chapter by Strand and Schill examines Donald Trump’s use of visuals in his first hundred days in office. It reveals how Trump used visuals on Facebook and Twitter to generate a positive impression of a leader in command as part of a strategy to legitimate his presidency, and allay criticisms of foreign interventions in the U.S. presidential elections. In their chapter, Poulakidakos and Giannouli examine the visuals used by political leaders in Greece on Instagram. Despite some differences between party leaders, they tend to use Instagram to promote a positive image of themselves; it provides them with an opportunity to shape their public persona unfiltered by the media. Instagram affords them a new opportunity to project visuals which generate a positive impression of them and their activities. Suelflow and Maurer’s chapter examines how visual cues exhibited by politicians in the media, such as facial expressions, affect citizens in Germany; in particular, they are interested in the effects of smiling and whether it is especially influential, via a range of tracking technologies. The study finds more positive impressions were formed when politicians smiled; however, this was tempered by the audio that accompanied the visual sequences and whether they were in agreement with it.
The fourth section of the book focuses on civil society actors. Parry examines the role of visuals in acts of memorialization on social media by citizens; the chapter explores the use of visuals in posts on the MoreInCommon Twitter hashtag, which was used as a platform to express sorrow after the murder of UK MP, Jo Cox, in 2016, and construct a common “we.” The chapter by Blaagaard looks at iconic visuals in political and social contexts theorizing about the power of grass roots civil rights campaign visuals in the digital era. It uses visual discursive analysis to examine modalities of protest visuals, looking at the case of the Black Lives Matter movement and the role of visuals in promoting social and political change. In the last chapter, Medrado et al. explore how protest visuals are used to build connections between media activists and gain attention and also how the algorithmic logics of digital environments, and the economic rationale of those environments, may work against the promotional strategies employed. The chapter explores the connections between Brazilian political movements and parties on YouTube and the different strategies used by these groups. Their desire to gain more visibility, on the one hand, is undermined by the YouTube’s algorithmic logic which does not aid the access of material that aligns to their political preferences.
This collection is a welcome intervention that, in the editors’ words, places visuals at the “epicenter” of the relationship between political communicators and audiences. The various chapters draw our attention to a number of important developments, in particular, the rise of social media, and go some way to addressing what remains an “under researched area” in political communication, providing a theoretical framework and methodological guidelines to aid future studies. I would recommend this collection to all those interested in understanding and analyzing political visuals in contemporary democracies.