Visual Persuasion in a Transforming Europe

PolarVis aims to understand how, why and with what consequences visual content becomes a mechanism of integration and polarisation in digitally saturated societies. It draws on in-depth qualitative approaches and large-scale computational analysis, providing unique interdisciplinary traction on the challenges of theorising and studying networked visual persuasion and its political role. The project studies movements and countermovements around the intergenerational issue of climate change, and focuses on four key junctures in (trans)national processes of persuasion and polarisation.



Research Areas

PRODUCTION

PolarVis uses interviews to understand the visual communication strategies of climate movement actors and stakeholders and address the following types of questions: How do (counter)movements use visual communication on digital platforms as part of their communication repertoire to mobilise, engage, and generate narratives about themselves and others?

Selected actvities:

  • Stakeholder Workshop on Polarized Perspectives: 11 March 2024 HUN-REN Budapest, Hungary.
  • Conference Presentation: D. Oross, D. Mikecz, and D. Rákos ‘The visual communication of climate change in a shifting political environment,’ Hungarian Political Science Association, 16-17 May 2024, Pécs, Hungary.
  • Conference Presentation: D. Mikecz, D. Oross and D. Rákos ‘Images as means of cohesion and polarization in Hungary.’ Alternative Futures and Popular Protest Conference, 17-18 June 2024, Manchester, UK.



PICTURES

PolarVis conducts qualitative and computational analyses of the visual narratives, iconography, and the emotional dimensions of social media communication in and around climate movements. The project addresses the following types of questions: What are the characteristics of the persuasive, contentious, and polarising visual content shared by (counter)movements? How is it framed? What visual narratives emerge?

Selected activities:

  • Journal Article: N. Doerr and M. Langa. Images of Nature in Online Climate Activism in Germany and Argentina: Androcentrism, affective connections and Non-Human ‘Everybodies’. Austrian Journal of Development Studies, Vol 40, Issue 1-2 PP 33-63
  • Conference Panel: ‘Transnational Contestation, Visual Digital Storytelling, Affect, Polarisation, and Trust’, European International Studies Association, 5-9 September 2023, Potsdam, Germany.
  • Stakeholder Workshop on Polarization: Visual Storytelling and Affective Connections on Climate Justice, 10-11 October 2024, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.



PUBLICS

PolarVis develops methodologies to quantify polarisation in social networks, and studies dynamics of emotion and affect around visual content in online climate communication. The project addresses the following types of questions: What kind of public (re)action is observable around the visual content that movements and countermovements share online? How is this connected with the emergence of affective publics and antagonising counterpublics?

Selected activities:

  • Conference Presentation: P. Tolochko, N. Righetti, and A. Waldherr. ‘Measuring Political Polarisation in Online Social Movement Networks: A Graph Embedding Approach.’ European Consortium for Political Research General Conference, 4-8 September 2023, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Conference Proceeding: L. Arminio and L. Rossi (2024). Measuring the Sociolinguistic Patterns of Climate Debate Polarization in the Facebook Context. In: Aiello L. M., Chakraborty, T., and Gaito, S. The 16th International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2024). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15213. Springer, Cham.
  • Conference Presentation: P. Tolochko, N., Righetti, and A. Waldherr. ‘Divisive imagery: Affective polarisation analysis in climate activism visuals.’ ECREA 2024 Communication & social (dis)order. 10th European Communication Conference. 24 – 27 September 2024, Ljubljana, Slovenia.



PROPAGATION

PolarVis examines how visual content is co-shared and propagated through online social networks in and around climate movements, among other things focusing on the dynamics within and between clusters of actors and counteractors. The project addresses the following types of questions: How does visual content spread in online discourse about an issue, and when does it spur like-minded or opposed groups to emerge? What is the trajectory of narratives and repertoires across groups, platforms and time?

Selected activities:

  • Journal Article: L. Rossi, A. Segerberg, L. Arminio., and M. Magnani. (2024). Do You See What I See? Emotional Reaction to Visual Content in the Online Debate About Climate Change. Environmental Communication, 1–19.
  • Keynote: A. Waldherr, P. Tolochko, and N. Righetti. (2024). Exploring Structural and Affective Polarization in Climate Activism. P³: Power, Propaganda, Polarisation. ICA 2024 Postconference 26-27 June 2024, Digital Media Research Centre Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia.
  • Conference Presentation: K. Uba, A. Segerberg and M. Magnani. Climate movements and their countermobilisation in the digital world. European Consortium for Political Research Joint Sessions 25-28 April 2023, Toulouse, France.