scholarly journals CREATIVE RECONSTRUCTIONS OF POLITICAL IMAGERY IN AN INSTAGRAM-BASED ELECTION CAMPAIGN: IMPLICATIONS FOR VISUAL RHETORICAL LITERACY

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-322
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska ◽  
Agnieszka Kampka
Keyword(s):  
Visual Rhetoric ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Political Communications ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Political Campaigning ◽  
Online Environments

This article reviews literature on visual rhetoric in political campaigning and synthesizes several strands of current research devoted to the rhetorical potential of communicating with visuals in online environments. It uses rhetorical concepts of identification and manoeuvring, as well as the category of topos, to discuss the implications of an abductive analysis of a coded corpus of 1976 Instagram images posted during 2019 election to the European Parliament campaign in Poland. On this basis, the article offers recommendations related to the awareness of topoi in visual rhetoric to foster users’ creative inventory. In the context of increasingly strategically designed and creative online political communications, scholarship should offer guidance on how to parse images according to how they (mis)represent political reality to fit the purposes of elite communicators, and how to challenge them.

Political Communications: The General Election Campaign of 1987

1991 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 573
Author(s):  
Dan Nimmo ◽  
Ivor Crewe ◽  
Martin Harrop
Keyword(s):  
General Election ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Political Communications

scholarly journals When do parties put Europe in the centre? Evidence from the 2019 European Parliament election campaign

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572110083
Author(s):  
Michaela Maier ◽  
Carlos Jalali ◽  
Jürgen Maier ◽  
Alessandro Nai ◽  
Sebastian Stier
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
National Level ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Integrated Model ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Media ◽  
Opposition Parties

European elections have been described as second-order phenomena for voters, the media, but also parties. Yet, since 2009, there exists evidence that not only voters, but also political parties assign increasing significance to European elections. While initially ‘issue entrepreneurs’ were held responsible for this development, the latest campaigns have raised the question of whether mainstream parties are finally also campaigning on European issues. In this article, we examine European Union (EU) salience in the 2019 European Parliament (EP) campaigns of government and opposition parties and the predictors of their strategic behaviours. We test the relevance of factors derived from the selective emphasis and the co-orientation approach within an integrated model of strategic campaign communication based on expert evaluations of 191 parties in 28 EU member states. Results show that the traditional expectation that government parties silence EU issues does not hold anymore; instead, the average EU salience of government and opposition parties is similar on the national level. The strongest predictors for a party’s decision to campaign on EU issues are the co-orientation towards the campaign agendas of competing parties, and party’s EU position.

scholarly journals Tweeting to save the furniture: the 2013 Australian election campaign on Twitter

2016 ◽  
Vol 162 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Bruns
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Small Target ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Federal Election ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Campaigning ◽  
Target Strategy ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Past years have seen continuing experimentation in the use of social media for political campaigning. By the time of the 2013 Australian federal election, social media of various forms had become comparatively mainstream in Australia and were widely used by members and candidates: more than 350 candidates operated Twitter accounts during the campaign, for instance. This article explores the key patterns both in how politicians and their parties campaigned on Twitter during the 2013 federal election campaign and in how the public responded to and engaged with these campaigns. It documents significant, systematic differences between the major party blocs and interprets these as reflecting the Coalition’s ‘small target’ strategy and Labor’s last-ditch attempts to ‘save the furniture’, respectively.

scholarly journals The First Prime Minister of the Instagram Age: The Visual Rhetoric and Image Management of Justin Trudeau

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loren Dingwall Dingwall
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Visual Rhetoric ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Image Management ◽  
Political Communications ◽  
Emotional Appeals ◽  
Key Techniques

This research focuses on an analysis of the visual rhetoric and image management of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Instagram photographs. As Instagram has grown in popularity, politicians and celebrities alike have harnessed the platform to convey their stories, brands, and messages to audiences, thereby curating and controlling the images presented to a wider audience. In Trudeau’s case, Instagram is employed as a strategic tool for image management. The literature review draws from key relevant subject areas: visual rhetoric and rhetorical studies, research on Instagram, political communication, and visual methodologies. Drawing on key elements from Hill (2006), Filimonov et al. (2016), and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (Harrison, 2003) research, research questions focused on examining the use emotional appeals, image management strategies, and how Trudeau engages his audience. This research investigates how Trudeau’s image is crafted using visual rhetoric and image management in his Instagram photos through a content analysis. The project involved coding fifty of Trudeau’s Instagram images—through content analysis—systematically from October 19, 2015-March 2, 2017. Examining these images provides insight into the rhetoric and image management constructed through the visual images Trudeau presents on Instagram. Findings reveal that emotional appeals are a prominent factor in the images, that Instagram is used as a strategic tool for image management, and that Trudeau’s images engage his audience by balancing personalization and professionalism while inviting users in on private personal and professional moments. This research highlights key techniques in strategic political communications with key tools for image management and building visual rhetoric through visual means on social media. The methods explored in this research can inform professional communicators’ decisions regarding the images posted to social media (and Instagram in particular) and their content, their captions, and how they work to construct a narrative on social media that aligns with offline communications goals.

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