Is the Picture in Focus? Images in Social Movement Mobilization

• In Event: New Methods in Comparative Politics and International Relations

Abstract

Large protest events often become known for iconic mobilizing images that emerge either prior to the event or from the event itself. In some cases, scholars attribute the success of protest events to these iconic images, which serve (in effect) as focusing events that help to draw attention to a cause and inspire coordinated action. However, research to date examines only successful protest events that include iconic images. It does not attempt to systematically assess the conditions under which images can play a mobilizing role. We address this limitation by using social media to examine a large number of ‘efforts’ to promote protests. We ask whether images can help to explain why some of these efforts succeed, and what types of images, if any, are most effective. We also propose an unsupervised computer vision technique to facilitate initial exploration of image usage patterns across large numbers of social media posts.

Authors

• Kevin Aslett

• Nora Webb Williams, University of Washington

• John D. Wilkerson, University of Washington

• Andreu Casas, New York University