<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Studies of activism and political participation have shown increasing interest in the relationship between photographs and activism. Most contributions are premised on the assumption that photographs have an impact on opinions, knowledge, and/or mobilising motivations. However, such causalities are rarely documented, and when it comes to what is arguably one of the most central questions in the field of activism and participation studies, why some people act and participate, and others do not, there is a near total absence of systematic knowledge on the impact of photographs. Taking the 2015 refugee crisis as its case, this article addresses the effect of photographs on individual willingness to participate politically using an experimental survey. While the hypothesis was that the inclusion of photographs in a call for action should lead to increased willingness to participate, the results showed that adding photographs had no significant effect on individuals’ willingness to participate. A possible explanation for this is the timing of the survey, in December 2015. By then, the debates on the refugee crisis were surrounded by less uncertainty, and opinions had crystallised.</p>
</abstract>

Studies of activism and political participation have shown increasing interest in the relationship between photographs and activism. Most contributions are premised on the assumption that photographs have an impact on opinions, knowledge, and/or mobilising motivations. However, such causalities are rarely documented, and when it comes to what is arguably one of the most central questions in the field of activism and participation studies, why some people act and participate, and others do not, there is a near total absence of systematic knowledge on the impact of photographs. Taking the 2015 refugee crisis as its case, this article addresses the effect of photographs on individual willingness to participate politically using an experimental survey. While the hypothesis was that the inclusion of photographs in a call for action should lead to increased willingness to participate, the results showed that adding photographs had no significant effect on individuals’ willingness to participate. A possible explanation for this is the timing of the survey, in December 2015. By then, the debates on the refugee crisis were surrounded by less uncertainty, and opinions had crystallised.

More Than Words?: A Test of the Effect of Emotionally Charged Photographs

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"More Than Words?: A Test of the Effect of Emotionally Charged Photographs"}

Studies of activism and political participation have shown increasing interest in the relationship between photographs and activism. Most contributions are...

	Only children	Only adults	Mixed
Low suffering/conflict	Photo 1. Two children in a refugee camp looking at camera	Photo 3. Refugees sitting on the ground in a waiting line	Photo 5. A group of refugees walking
High suffering/conflict	Photo 2. Two crying children held back by authority figure	Photo 4. Refugees in open water struggling to swim ashore	Photo 6. Crying father with children after disembarking boat

More Than Words?: A Test of the Effect of Emotionally Charged Photographs

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 35 - 48

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2018-0010

Keywords
political activism, photographs, visual framing, refugee crisis, experiments

© 2018 Thomas Olesen, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Photograph categories in the pre-test survey

More Than Words?: A Test of the Effect of Emotionally Charged Photographs

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 35 - 48

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2018-0010

Keywordspolitical activism, photographs, visual framing, refugee crisis, experiments

© 2018 Thomas Olesen, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Photograph categories in the pre-test survey

Keywords
political activism, photographs, visual framing, refugee crisis, experiments