Image Politics: The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism

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To investigate what features can be considered as general characteristics of social media visual communication (RQ1a) and what are the platform-specific strategies (RQ1b) employed by candidates on Facebook and Instagram, the shares of the presence of these categories are compared on the two platforms. His book “Sensible Politics: visualising International Relations” is the first book-length analysis of visuality, multisensory politics and International Relations. DeLuca makes an easy connection to the reader and minimizes any pretense such an erudite discussion could involve.

Hart, Liddell Professor of Communication and Government, University of Texas at Austin "DeLuca offers a penetrating reading of image events and their centrality in the rhetoric of new social movements. First, our goal is to elaborate an extensive coding scheme that investigates images as objects of interest on their own rather than pure illustration to textual communication and is thus suitable to offer a detailed map of political actors’ visual strategies. With respect to various historical periods, artistic genres and contexts, it investigated the production conditions and functionalisation of images, created explicitly or primarily for the public portrayal of authors.Hence, it is highly important to investigate how voters respond to candidates’ visual communication on social media. DeLuca crafts a highly useful 'critical rhetorical' approach that allows subtle and complex analysis of relatively underexamined kinds of environmental activism. As for cross-posted images, the characteristics of these are more similar to Instagram than Facebook visuals, as they generally feature more informal and fewer formal elements. Further, Deluca extends the critiques of various cultural theorists and post-structuralist rhetoricians. In June Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, warned that governments had until the beginning of next year to tackle the issue of AI-generated disinformation.

We argue that politicians are able to personalize their visual presence on these platforms by offering original visual content and images depicting themselves. This is not surprising, as it is now faster, easier, and more motivating than ever before to take and share pictures on social media platforms. In our conceptualization, this is one of the two indicators of personalization: If politicians distribute their own self-made visuals on their own personal pages to their own followers, the visual communication is regarded as highly personal.Based on the conceptualization discussed above, we argue that individualization relates to the more formal political work of the candidates, while privatization has an informal character.

Climate change graphics have not only increased knowledge about the subject, they have begun to influence popular awareness of global weather events. Finally, it is to be stressed that in public discourse, Instagram is strongly associated with celebrities and influencers, who visualize intimate details of their personal life for their followers.

One recent example was Rory Stewart, whose use of social media gained him attention during his short bid for the leadership of the UK Conservative Party. In the context of election campaigns, for example, the digital age enables a more negative environment. Interactions between Candidates and Followers on Facebook during the Hungarian General Election Campaign of 2014. Personalization of Politics on Facebook: Examining the Content and Effects of Professional, Emotional and Private Self-Personalization.