[ecrea] CfP - The Poster - Visual Politics: Political Party Imagery

Even before the advent of the modern party, images were used to 
communicate to the electorate by both the ruling group and the 
opposition. But with the rise of the industrial society, an important 
condition for the forming of mass parties was
the possibility of producing vast quantities of printed matter featuring 
images. The era of the mass party could not have come into being without 
the rise of popular newspapers and their pictorial representations of 
politicians and events.
With the advent of film and later television, many changes took place in 
the role of images in politics, and even though the media landscape is 
shifting, most researchers agree that there is a predominance of visual 
communication within today’s political scene. The dominant media 
channels for contemporary political debate are reliant on visual 
presentations.

Areas of interest for studies of visual political communication include:

•	Posters, both election and other. The poster remains the dominant 
push-me- dia in the public sphere (though this dominance is being 
challenged by big data feeding targeted social media) and thus keeps its 
role as an important means of reaching the mass of the population. 
Technological developments have opened the door for electronic posters 
and billboards, with moving im- ages, sound, and interaction.

•	Logos and symbols. There are significant differences between countries 
when it comes to developing logos and symbols for each party. In Sweden, 
e.g., al- most all parties have flowers of different kinds as symbols, 
while Danish par- ties use the letter assigned to the party by the 
authorities. In other countries, everyday objects are used as party 
symbols in elections to avoid the problems of literacy in the 
electorate. But in all cases, the symbol is invested with local values 
and community significance.

•	Portraits of representatives. The formal political portrait is used to 
underline and enhance the personal qualities of the politician, but it 
is clear that local differences as well as political differences are 
being eroded, with portraits gravitating towards an ‘international 
standard’. Which opens opportunities for smaller parties to present a 
more ‘daring’ style in its portraits (not to men-
tion the adventurously bare chested novelty of some of Vladimir Putin’s 
por- traiture).
Press photos and ‘photo opportunities’. No party can completely control 
the public image presented by the press, but there are many ways of 
directing press photographers towards producing photos which reflect the 
intentions of the party.

Images on websites. All party websites use a variety of pictures in 
order to connect with the values held dearly by their target voters. 
These images may be both positive or negative and present a certain 
interpretation of both the political context and the culture within 
which the party is active.

Videos on the internet. All parties use a variety of videos in their 
everyday communication. These range from talking heads explaining the 
party’s politics on a certain subject to more or less artistic 
renditions of the lives of people and the state of the world.

All of these areas are worth studying in their own right, with an 
emphasis on the semiotics of representation, the historical development, 
the technical limitations and possibilities, or the relation to 
particular groups within the society. However it is crucial to look upon 
the complex interplay between the imagery in each of these categories; 
creating a visual intertextuality, a meta political statement injected 
into the public sphere. With campaign planning becoming an indispensable
part of political communication, the recirculation and recognition of 
key visual elements has become a crucial factor. This can be discussed 
in terms of visual culture or identity, and with reference to the 
techniques used within corporate communication, or in terms of visual 
rhetoric with an emphasis on the persuasive intentions behind the chosen 
images.
Studying the role of images in party political communication, a plethora 
of analytic approaches present themselves, but what is important is the 
cross-fertilization of these approaches in order to construct a fuller 
understanding of the phenomenon within its societal context.

Multimodality is a key element to understanding the use of images in 
combination with other forms of mediated communication. We therefore 
encourage scholars from both social and political science, as well as 
cultural studies, arts, and communication studies, to submit proposals 
publication. The journal is looking for:

Full papers of 7000-9000 words plus illustrations on the issue’s theme 
(for double blind peer review). Rich illustration of the text is 
welcomed. Theoretical papers as well as methodological discussion are 
welcome, but preferably in combination with empirical analysis of 
imagery. Case studies, comparisons across culture, or historical studies 
are invited.
Artist / Designer Monographs. Extended scholarly pieces addressing the 
issue’s theme (for double blind peer review). 10000 – 25000 words plus 
extensive illustrations.
Image and Photo Essays composed of illustrations, photographs, diagrams 
or schematics that use visual languages to communicate their point of 
view on this edition’s themes. Textual support may be added, if it is 
felt necessary.
Reviews of relevant books, exhibitions and political gatherings (the 
editors would be more than happy to publish a good review of the U.S. 
Republican or Democratic party conferences).

Timeline:
Abstracts (250 words) due Thursday 1st of September 2016. Selected 
contributors will be informed in the following week.
Full manuscripts due Monday 5th of December 2016.
Please send abstracts and manuscripts to the following address: 
(S.T.Downs /at/ lboro.ac.uk)
They should be addressed to Simon Downs (the journal’s editor).


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