[Commlist] Call for submissions: Methodological Developments in Visual Politics & Protest/ Special issue of Journal of Digital Social Research

Call for submissions: Methodological Developments in Visual Politics & 
Protest

Special issue of Journal of Digital Social Research

War streaming on Instagram, propaganda in press photography, refugee 
activism on TikTok - recent European crises have shown images and videos 
as essential tools of communication in politics and protest, a trend 
mirrored in the increasing use of visual data in research methodologies. 
Visual data may capture practices of visual, performative, or non-verbal 
communication, text-image relationships, the development of visual 
formats, notions of aesthetics, as well as underlying meanings of 
symbols and codes. Extant research has since captured different elements 
of visual politics and protest, including social history (e.g. protest 
photography), political commentary or affiliation (e.g. through memes or 
profile picture overlays), social cues in political communication (e.g. 
in the form of GIFs, filters, or emoji), visual activism practices (e.g. 
culture-jamming, sousveillance video coverage, graphic flesh-witnessing, 
or video activism), and visual forms of information documentation and 
distribution (e.g. infographics).
Even so, new creative practices have at times challenged research 
practices, for example with regards to image authenticity and 
appropriation in mis- and disinformation campaigns (e.g. deepfakes), the 
role of platform affordances in new visual formats and spaces (e.g. 
short videos on TikTok), (mis)interpretation and differing levels of 
visual literacy in communications, trust in image data as factual 
evidence, and opaqueness in the production of visual materials. These 
critical debates have been particularly contentious in the arena of 
politics and protest, where visuals have been seen to shape political 
opinion and discourse, electoral campaigns, war coverage, and Covid-19 
data visualisations.
In response to these trends, we are looking for methodologically 
oriented papers on visual politics and/or protest. This may include 
methodological discussions, new methods or approaches, worked examples 
or case studies, research on emerging visual digital phenomena, or 
submissions linking theory to methodology surrounding digital culture, 
data, or methods. Foci may be based around methods of data collection, 
analysis, visualisation, theorisation, or other methodological areas.
On a broad level this may include (but is not limited to):
• New methodological approaches in visual or multimodal data collection 
or analysis
• Platform- or format-specific mitigations in conducting visual research 
on politics and protest
• New methodological approaches (including software tools if applicable) 
for capturing visuality or visual cultures in politics and protest
• Discussions of the relevance of technological formats, tools, and 
infrastructures in visual research
• Innovations in embedding visuals or visuality with textual, audio, or 
sensory materials
• Advancements in analysing specific political visual digital practices 
and/or phenomena
• Methodological strategies for interpreting and/or quantifying visual data
• Emerging approaches to visualising image or video data
• Suggestions or developments in the ethical treatment of visuality in 
politics, protest, or activism
• Epistemological discussions of the role of the visual in politics, 
protest, or social movements
• Advances in collecting, interpreting, and conceptualising social media 
data
• Linking theory to methodology in visual research
We are open to different article structures. However, articles should 
have clear contributions in the arena of methodological research by 
outlining or describing new methodological approaches, innovations, 
strategies, or frameworks. As such, they should draw on methodological 
scholarship in the wider field.

Submission & key dates

Extended abstracts of 400-500 words excluding reference list (references 
are optional) are due 15th December 2022 and should be directly to the 
special issue editors - see email info below. Final articles should be 
submitted directly via the journal website of the Journal of Digital 
Social Research (https://www.jdsr.io/  <https://www.jdsr.io/>) and have 
a word count of up to 8500 words inclusive of everything (abstracts, 
reference list, notes). JDSR does not charge submission or publication fees.
15th December 2022: special issue abstract submissions
15th February 2023: End of abstract selection & communication of results
15th April 2023: Full papers due
15th July 2023: End of first review round
15th October 2023: End of second review round
December 2023: Publication of special issue

Further details

This special issue call follows on from the pre-conference workshop 
“Visual Politics & Protest - Methodological Challenges” organised by the 
ECREA Visual Cultures section (see 
https://visualculturesecrea.wordpress.com/ 
<https://visualculturesecrea.wordpress.com/>). Submissions to the 
special issue call are, however, open to everyone. For added context, 
the programme can still be viewed on the pre-conference website: 
https://cutt.ly/visual-politics-ecrea 
<https://cutt.ly/visual-politics-ecrea>, along with a list of references 
discussed during the conference.
In the case of both questions or submissions, please email us directly 
on the below indicated email addresses.

Special issue team

Suay Melisa Özkula, University of Trento,(suaymelisa.ozkula /at/ unitn.it)
Hadas Schlussel, Hebrew University of 
Jerusalem,(hadas.schlussel /at/ mail.huji.ac.il)
Danka Ninković Slavnić, University of Belgrade,(dninkovic /at/ yahoo.com)
Doron Altaratz, The Hadassah Academic College,(doronal /at/ edu.hac.ac.il)
Tom Divon, Hebrew University of Jerusalem,(zem1987 /at/ gmail.com)


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