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
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?
PICTURES
What are the characteristics of the persuasive, contentious, and polarising visual content shared by (counter)movements? How is it framed? What visual narratives emerge?
PUBLICS
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?
PROPAGATION
How does this visual content spread online, and allow like-minded or opposed groups to emerge?
What is the trajectory of narratives and repertoires across groups, platforms and time?