Image Events
Image events are staged protests for media dissemination. The spread of visual imagery across mass communications is a popular way to promote protest and engage public participation.[1][2][3] It is a postmodern form of argument involving images that promote protest and seek to stir public controversy. Companies have different communicative tactics for image events. Greenpeace's goal is not necessarily to stop ships from illegal whaling but to get a photo in direct action. Their mission is to get the photos to circulate on different news platforms and allow the public to start debate. Photos get released to the news and when the public is informed they will engage in controversy. Companies can track engagement online and use this data to produce more successful campaigns.[4]
Historical context[edit]
In a corporate perspective, the normalization of image events is an example of a historical story of public relations practice and our modern techniques in our information age.[5]
21st century[edit]
Technology has become an integral part for the dissemination of messages.[3] Scholars agree that changing public argument is influenced by technology and access to mass media. In the digital age, controversial visual images are replacing memorable words.[6] Barthes relates visual and linguistic's as having influence on each other and in the context of image events this addresses the relation of media text and images circulating online. [7]
Image events as data[edit]
Data can be described in different forms and images are a form of qualitative data.[8] Image events can be tracked in real time online through community engagement on media platforms like websites, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Argument in visualizations[edit]
Images form an argument of their own. [1][2][7] Images can function to make claims, inflict emotions, and alter perspectives.[1] How the audience encounters image events can change how the public views traditional data and information from traditional mainstream media.[1]
Tracking[edit]
See also: Data Visualization
Interactions with the content we share can be tracked online for companies to view public engagement.[8] Click path data can be used to track interactions with website cookies that analyze which content is most viewed.[8]. GreenPeace also uses surveys and focus groups to track public engagement.
Limitations[edit]
When tracking engagement online, data can be easily manipulated. Information disseminated to the audience can lose value when text are used alongside images after they are circulated.[7] The openness of the image becomes lost when text from media sources recirculating the event provide an explanation.[7] Unethical campaigns and lack of public engagement have been linked as a downside of image events, scholars like Richard King have critiqued the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) for this.[9] Image events themselves can be manipulated through corporate tactics.[5] Corporations have started to implement anti-anti-capitalist training courses to control image events from harming their reputation. [5] There are no regulations for image events and no pure space where image events can exist without manipulation from corporations. [5]
Types[edit]
Environmental image events[edit]
See also: Environmentalism
Image events were first discussed with an emphasis on environmental protest being captured and disseminated to the public.[1]
GreenPeace[edit]
Any images that are copyright of Greenpeace can be used for personal or educational purposes if you reproduce the copyright information.[10] Greenpeace uses vanity metrics to measure campaign engagement through website hits and uses this data to strategize impact.[11] Early Greenpeace activism followed the idea of bearing witness and becoming an actor of change when being exposed to powerful images.[12] Greenpeace uses the website Planet4[13] as an open source platform to track engagement in a way that encourages transparency and allows the public to comment on image campaigns.[14]
EarthFirst![edit]
In 1981, Earth First! produced an image event to gain attention about the environment by playing a large ribbon across the Grand Canyon Dam .[1]
Political[edit]
Political figures will try to participate in events themselves and gain widespread circulation of them at these events. [5] British Prime Minister Tony Blair held a rifle with a teacup in his hand to promote tea over war.[5]
Activism[edit]
Image events function as critical strategies to affect social change. An image of activist Rachel Corrie protesting in front of a bulldozer with a microphone and images of her burning the U.S flag were circulated across the globe.[7] Guerrilla Girls produced an image event by posting controversial billboards and encouraging people to go to their website and engage in social activism. [15]
Virtual Memorial's as Image Events[edit]
The Vietnam Veteran Memorial online has been argued to contribute to the commodified public memory that represents American soldiers in Vietnam as victims. [16]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Delicath, John W.; DeLuca, Kevin Michael (September 2003). "Image Events, the Public Sphere, and Argumentative Practice: The Case of Radical Environmental Groups". Argumentation. 17(3): 315–333. doi:10.1023/A:1025179019397
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Carvalho, Anabela; Peterson, Tarla Rai (2012). Climate Change Politics; Communication and Public Engagement. Portland: Cambria Press. pp. 1–27. ISBN 9781604978230 Search this book on
.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Zertuche, H. (2012). “Image events” in art and hypertext: Visual (re)articulation of “human” and “animal” (Order No. 1511872). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1021388920). Retrieved from http://proxy.library.carleton.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/docview/1021388920?accountid=9894
- ↑ Mobilization Lab. "2015 Year Review". Mobilization Lab.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Littler, Joe (2009). "Corporate Involvement in Image Events: Media Stunts, Guerrilla Marketing and the Problem of Political Interpretation". Enculturation. 6.2.
- ↑ Jamieson, K. H.: 1988, Eloquence in an Electronic Age: The Transformation of Political Speechmaking, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Yanoshevsky, Galia (2009). "The Possibility and Actuality of Image Events: Framing Image Events in the Press and on the Internet". Enculturation. 6.2.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Kitchin, Rob (2014). The Data Revolution. Sage. Search this book on
- ↑ King, Richard (2009). "Troubling Images: PETA's 'Holocaust on Your Plate' and the Limits of Image Events". Enculturation. 6.2. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
- ↑ Greenpeace Photo and Video Library. "Copyright". Greenpeace. Greenpeace Licensing.
- ↑ Holtz, Colin. "Beyond Vanity Metrics" (PDF). Mobilization Lab. Citizen Engagement Lab.
- ↑ Foster, Derek (2009). "Kleer-cut(ting) Downtown: The Visual Rhetoric of Greenpeace's Quest to Save the Boreal Forest". Enculturation. 6.2.
- ↑ GreenPeace. "Planet 4". medium.
- ↑ Hamlin, Matt. "Greenpeace's Engagement & Content Vision: A billion acts of courage can spark a better tomorrow". medium.
- ↑ Tulley, Christine. "Image Events Guerrilla Girl Style: A 20-Year Retrospective". Enculturation. 6.2.
- ↑ Baird, Neil. "Virtual Vietnam Veterans Memorials as Image Events: Exorcising the Specter of Vietnam". Enculturation. 6.2.
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