[Air-L] Journal of Visual Political Communication - CFP "Dark and Unethical Visual Politics"

[Viktor Chagas]

Dear All

Apologies for the cross-posting. I believe this call may be of interest to
some colleagues on this list. It is for a special issue of the Journal of
Visual Political Communication, for which I am serving as guest editor. The
issue is scheduled for publication in early 2026 and will focus on "Dark
and Unethical Visual Politics." I warmly invite colleagues to submit their
manuscripts. The full CFP text is included below.

Best regards,

Viktor Chagas
Fluminense Federal University, Brazil
___


*Journal of Visual Political CommunicationCFP “Dark and Unethical Visual
Politics” (Early 2026)*

Visual Politics has gained significant prominence in recent years due to a
series of controversial and unethical uses. Framing political actors,
depicting contentious or satirical images, whether to build a positive
interpretation or to mock authority, has always constituted a strategic and
persuasive repertoire for political communication. Historically, the image
was often seen as the last threshold for distinguishing facts from fakes.
However the digital environment has reconfigured this status, drawing
increased attention to malicious uses of images and their relation to
spreading mis/disinformation and biased content. This call for papers for a
special issue of the Journal of Visual Political Communication welcomes
theoretical and empirical contributions concerned with these contested uses.

This issue aims to bring together a body of studies focused on visual
research challenges and agendas that emphasize images in contexts that are
dangerous for democracy and that may pose risks to trust in institutions,
threats to socio-environmental justice, or undermine current epistemic
regimes, political opponents or minoritized groups. Manuscripts may present
reflections on the dark side of visual politics or focus on case studies
from different countries and regions. Topics may include, but are not
limited to, discussions on:

• Ethical and epistemological boundaries of visual political communication
• Methodological aspects of investigating unethical uses of images
• Generative artificial intelligence images or political deepfakes during
elections
• Hateful far-right memes, misogynistic and supremacist troll armies, and
their political implications
• The image serving anti-immigration nationalism and authoritarian populisms
• Apocryphal visual campaigns and coordinated slanderous visual attacks
• Critical aspects of the visual politics of disinformation as well as
historical and scientific denialism
• Fabrication of fake images of non-consensual pornography targeting
political actors
• Problems generated by algorithmic discrimination in the political arena
• Cybersecurity issues concerning state visual surveillance, citizen
privacy, and abusive biometric recognition
• Controversial military use of computer vision in drones and autonomous
weapons for human-unsupervised lethal attacks
• Alteration of visual evidence to mislead the justice system or create
false narratives

Full papers must range between 7,000 and 9,000 words and can be
co-authored. Illustrations related to the issue's theme are welcomed, as
long as ethical limits for discrimination and graphic violence are taken
into account and the restrictions of double-blind peer review are
considered. Theoretical papers and methodological discussions are welcomed,
but preferably in combination with visual material and empirical analysis
of imagery. Comparative studies, historical analyses, and case studies
using qualitative or quantitative approaches are also invited. The special
issue also accepts proposals for curation of images, including photos,
illustrations, diagrams, memes, or cartoons that relate to the dark and
unethical uses of images, as long as copyright is fully respected. No APC
fee is applied to the Journal of Visual Political Communication, except in
case authors want to publish their articles in Open Access mode. These
policies can be found here https://www.intellectbooks.com/open-access

The deadlines are as follows:

*Submission of manuscripts: from November 30, 2024 – April 30, 2025*
*Manuscript evaluation: between April–October 2025*
*Author review (when applicable): October–December 2025*
*Publication scheduled for early 2026*

Questions and queries can be addressed to the guest editor Viktor Chagas by
email at viktor at midia.uff.br

Please submit full contributions to
https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-visual-political-communication

___

*Guest Editor*
Viktor Chagas (Fluminense Federal University, Brazil)

*Co-Editors of the Journal of Visual Political Communication*
Orla Vigsø (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
Bengt Johansson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
Darren Lilleker (Bournemouth University, UK)
Anastasia Veneti (Bournemouth University, UK)

*Associate Editor*
Helena Barbosa (University of Aveiro, Portugal)
__

Kind Regards,
Viktor Chagas
Professor
Universidade Federal Fluminense
PhD in History, Politics and Cultural Assets
viktor at midia.uff.br
ombudsmanviktor.bio.link

CV Lattes <http://lattes.cnpq.br/5832049847796420>, Google Scholar
<https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=F02DKoAAAAAJ&hl=en>, OrcID
<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1806-6062>, ResearchGate
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Viktor-Chagas>
coLAB Research Group <http://colab.uff.br>, #MUSEUdeMEMES
<https://museudememes.com.br/>, INCT.dd <https://inctdd.org/>
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