Audiovisual Political Communication and Its Impact on the Formation of Public Opinion

Dear Colleagues,

The mediatization of politics is one of the main implications deriving from the advent of Information Society. Politicians have to adapt to the rules of the game set by the media to convey their messages to citizens and so influence how audiences form their opinions. Thanks to its audio-visual nature, television was the main medium in the formation of public opinion before the emergence of digital social networks. This medium drove a growing spectacularization of political messages, which has been reinforced by the arrival of social media platforms. These digital communication resources offer great advantages to politics, since they promote direct, un-mediated contact with the audience. Politicians themselves thus become the media. 

Digital platforms’ appropriation of the political narrative brings with it, among other things, simplification of messages, an intense personalization of politics and a strategic use of private lives. Its deepest consequence, however, is the central importance of image –of the audio-visual– in building narratives. Political communication makes use of images to seize attention and make meaningful connections with audiences, to effectively persuade them, and to mobilize the electorate. These dynamics lead to the generation of emotional politics commonly employed (and particularly exploited) by the populist parties that are proliferating around the globe.

This Special Issue seeks to analyse and respond to the challenges presented by audio-visual communication being applied to the political field at a time like the present, marked by abundance of disinformation, hate speech and propaganda disguised as information, especially on social networks. 

Potential topics include, but are not limited to: 

• Audio-visual communication and pop-politics.
• Visual social networks (Instagram, TikTok, etc.) and political communication.
• The use of images in electoral campaigns.
• Image and populism.
• Audio-visual content in political disinformation.
• The spectacularization of politics.
• The impact of visual political content on public opinion.
• The influence of the old audio-visual media (radio, TV) in the digital age.

Dr. David García-Marín
Guest Editor

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• pop-politics
• audio-visual disinformation
• political disinformation
• audio-visual media
• political communication
• public opinion
• populism