[Commlist] Journal of Visual Political Communication - CFP Dark and Unethical Visual Politics (early 2026)

*Journal of Visual Political Communication
CFP “Dark and Unethical Visual Politics” (Early 2026)*

Visual Politics has gained significant prominence in recent years due to 
a series of controversial and unethical uses. Framing political actors, 
depicting contentious or satirical images, whether to build a positive 
interpretation or to mock authority, has always constituted a strategic 
and persuasive repertoire for political communication. Historically, the 
image was often seen as the last threshold for distinguishing facts from 
fakes. However the digital environment has reconfigured this status, 
drawing increased attention to malicious uses of images and their 
relation to spreading mis/disinformation and biased content. This call 
for papers for a special issue of the Journal of Visual Political 
Communication welcomes theoretical and empirical contributions concerned 
with these contested uses.

This issue aims to bring together a body of studies focused on visual 
research challenges and agendas that emphasize images in contexts that 
are dangerous for democracy and that may pose risks to trust in 
institutions, threats to socio-environmental justice, or undermine 
current epistemic regimes, political opponents or minoritized groups. 
Manuscripts may present reflections on the dark side of visual politics 
or focus on case studies from different countries and regions. Topics 
may include, but are not limited to, discussions on:

• Ethical and epistemological boundaries of visual political communication
• Methodological aspects of investigating unethical uses of images
• Generative artificial intelligence images or political deepfakes 
during elections
• Hateful far-right memes, misogynistic and supremacist troll armies, 
and their political implications
• The image serving anti-immigration nationalism and authoritarian populisms
• Apocryphal visual campaigns and coordinated slanderous visual attacks
• Critical aspects of the visual politics of disinformation as well as 
historical and scientific denialism
• Fabrication of fake images of non-consensual pornography targeting 
political actors
• Problems generated by algorithmic discrimination in the political arena
• Cybersecurity issues concerning state visual surveillance, citizen 
privacy, and abusive biometric recognition
• Controversial military use of computer vision in drones and autonomous 
weapons for human-unsupervised lethal attacks
• Alteration of visual evidence to mislead the justice system or create 
false narratives

Full papers must range between 7,000 and 9,000 words and can be 
co-authored. Illustrations related to the issue's theme are welcomed, as 
long as ethical limits for discrimination and graphic violence are taken 
into account and the restrictions of double-blind peer review are 
considered. Theoretical papers and methodological discussions are 
welcomed, but preferably in combination with visual material and 
empirical analysis of imagery. Comparative studies, historical analyses, 
and case studies using qualitative or quantitative approaches are also 
invited. The special issue also accepts proposals for curation of 
images, including photos, illustrations, diagrams, memes, or cartoons 
that relate to the dark and unethical uses of images, as long as 
copyright is fully respected. No APC fee is applied to the Journal of 
Visual Political Communication, except in case authors want to publish 
their articles in Open Access mode. These policies can be found here 
https://www.intellectbooks.com/open-access 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/open-access>

The deadlines are as follows:

*Submission of manuscripts: from November 30, 2024 – April 30, 2025*
*Manuscript evaluation: between April–October 2025*
*Author review (when applicable): October–December 2025*
*Publication scheduled for early 2026*

Questions and queries can be addressed to the guest editor Viktor Chagas 
by email at (viktor /at/ midia.uff.br) <mailto:(viktor /at/ midia.uff.br)>

Please submit full contributions to 
https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-visual-political-communication

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