Political Posters Research Articles

The Prevalence of Political Discourse in Non-Political Blogs

Though political theorists have emphasized the importance of political discussion in non-political spaces, past study of online political discussion has focused on primarily political websites. Using a random sample from Blogger.com, we find that 25% of all political posts are from blogs that post about politics less than 20% of the time, because the vast majority of blogs post about politics some of the time but infrequently. Far from being taboo topics in those non- political blogs, political posts got slightly more comments than non-political posts in those same blogs, and the comments overwhelmingly engage the political topics of the post, mostly agreeing but frequently disagreeing as well. We argue that non-political spaces devoted primarily to personal diaries, hobbies, and other topics represent a substantial place of online political discussion and should be a site for further study.

Discourse of resistance in Fani-Kayode’s political posts on Facebook

This study examined the discourse of resistance in Fem Fani-Kayode’s (FFK) Facebook posts. FFK’s use of language of resistance has not attracted the attention of scholars, especially in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The thrust of this work is to investigate and examine different resistance strategies in some of his political posts. Data for this work were collected from the Facebook page of Fani-Kayode. The posts were downloaded and saved on the laptop device for further analysis. The work adopts a purposive sampling method in data collection, which was preferred because it allows manual assessment of FFK posts to extract relevant data for this work. Five political posts were selected and downloaded from his Facebook page. The five posts were selected because they discussed critical political and security issues in the country. From the five posts, 12 extracts were culled because of their resourcefulness in the use of resistance strategies. This study adopted qualitative analysis using CDA because CDA helps to unravel inherent ideologies in the posts. The study identified and discussed different resistance strategies in the FFK posts on Facebook and their implications. The identified resistance strategies include: proposition, presupposition, negation, propaganda, and emotive lexis. The study submits that the strategies have political, social and academic implications for society. It concludes that social media users should filter information on the media before they react, to avoid the dissemination of wrong information and prevent conflict in the society.

Outbreak of war memories? Historical analogies of the 1990s wars in discourses about the coronavirus pandemic in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia

ABSTRACT The article examines how historical analogies and collective memories of the 1990s wars figured in public discussions during the first wave of the coronavirus crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The research is based on the analysis of political speeches, media articles and social networks posts, examining the presence – or absence – of war analogies in these sources in the first period of the coronavirus pandemic, from mid-March 2020 to mid-May 2020. The article examines in which ways historical analogies referring to the 1990s wars were used during the coronavirus pandemic in two societies which have a recent war experience. By analysing to what extent and in which ways analogies to the war were used in political and societal discourses in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, this article adds to the existing literature on the use of historical analogies by focusing on the use of war analogies in societies where the war is not an abstract reference, but a recent, lived experience.

Colour me Revolutionary

Colour in China has a long history of artistic, symbolic, religious, and mythological use. This paper takes the idea of colour as a meaningful element within Chinese society and introduces the use of visual colour grammar as a new way to identify and breakdown the use of colour within political art and propaganda posters. The use of colour has been adapted by visual linguists into its own unique visual grammar component, relaying much more information than just a symbolic transfer from sign to signifier. Meaning within political posters can be derived from regularities in use, presentation, and conventional meanings. Colour as a visual grammar component is expressed through the three metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal, and textual.
 This paper explores how the Chinese views on colour interconnects with the metafunctions of colour to look at the political posters of the PRC. I will discuss both the approach to art as a text that can be ‘read’ through visual grammar and present colour in the Chinese context as more than a symbol making device but as a meaning component in and of itself.

How Humorous Posts Influence Engagement With Political Posts on Social Media

Abstract. Individuals frequently process political posts on social media in the context of humorous, non-political posts, which research suggests may stimulate or dampen their engagement with the political posts depending on their political involvement. To clarify that claim, I conducted a 2 × 2 experiment ( N = 286) in which individuals viewed political posts situated among either humorous or non-humorous posts, all presented as video-recorded posts on a social media newsfeed, in a condition of either low or high political involvement. Among the results, the humorous posts directly boosted general attention, the elaboration of political posts, and the acquisition of political knowledge in the low political involvement group and stimulated political participation in the high political involvement group. Further analyses revealed that, in the low involvement group, increased attention and the elaboration of the posts may have mediated humor’s effect on the acquisition of political knowledge. Meanwhile, its positive effect on participation in the high involvement group occurred independently from general attention and the elaboration of the posts. Altogether, the findings suggest that humorous social media contexts may benefit the acquisition of political knowledge and political participation.

The peculiarities of normative legal regulation of the official structure of civil service of the Republic of Kazakhstan

This article explores the peculiarities of legal regulation of the official structure of civil service of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The author determines the characteristic of the current stage of development of the institution of civil service, and conducts their assessment from the perspective of the impact of various models of arrangement and functionality of the system of civil service. Particular attention is given to the terminological framework and essential content of the key categories of this institution. The author differentiates the concepts of “state civil service of the Russian Federation”, “state service of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and “civil service of the Republic of Kazakhstan”. The application of comparative- legal and formal-legal methods allow establishing correlation between the political and administrative posts in civil service of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the one hand and state positions and positions of the civil service of the Russian Federation on the other hand; and public office and posts in civil service of the Russian Federation on the other hand. The conclusion is made on the substantial differences not only in the official structure of civil service, but in the official structure of public administration in both countries as well. The article also outlines a range of problems in the normative legal regulation of the official structure of civil service of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is proven that the direct comparison of the official structures of public administration and civil service of the two countries is impossible due to significant difference in the terminological framework and general principles of formation of the official structures. Taking into account the common historical base – the uniform system of civil service of the Soviet Union, such a difference may testify to multidirectional trends in the development of the systems of civil service in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

“Visual Metaphor” and “Metonymy” as the Reflection of Creative Thought in Art: An Analysis on Graphic Designer Yossi Lemel’s Poster Designs on the Coronavirus (Covid-19) from Charles Forceville’s Perspective

Works designed with visual metaphors and metonymies (posters, photographs, paintings, etc.) are considered to be strong in creativity and effective in meaning construction. This study analyzes selected poster designs of one of the most famous graphic designers of the world, Yossi Lemel, on the coronavirus (Covid-19). The scope of the study is limited to visual metaphors and metonymies. Based on the similarities between concepts, metaphors and metonymies are the most important signs in visual semiotics analyses. Symbols, codes, myths, and visual oxymorons are other signs that should be studied; however, limiting the study to metaphors and metonymies that are grounded on similarities, it is aimed to discuss the topic in detail. The purpose of the study is to put forth how the concepts formed in our minds are visualized by using metaphors and metonymies and to reveal the aesthetics these signs bring into visual designs. Finding and using metaphors is an important creativity activity that makes the receiver read the meaning easily from a different point. These are important elements of semiotics that build up works with strong creativity. It is this creative language that makes Lemel’s social and political posters important.

Textual and Discourse Characteristics of a Contemporary German Political Poster

The research object is a polycode text of a political poster studied on the material taken from posters used by contemporary political parties of the Federal Republic of Germany. The subject of research includes discourse parame-ters associated with the belonging of the text type under study to the socio-political communication such as persuasion, agonality, institutionality, and pol-ysubjectness. The interpretation of verbal and non-verbal markers of these dis-course parameters is carried out through the leading communicative and prag-matic tactics used in creating a text structure of a political poster as a means of social mass campaigning and propaganda.

Parliamentary Positions and Politicians’ Private Sector Earnings: Evidence from the UK House of Commons

Most democracies allow their members of parliament to concurrently be employed in the private sector. A widespread worry is that politicians leverage their current or past posts within parliament, for example, as ministers or committee chairs, to gain lucrative jobs. However, we know little about whether “moonlighting” income is indeed driven by these positions. I analyze comprehensive new panel data on the private sector earnings of all members of the UK House of Commons during 2010–16. Focusing on within-legislator variation, I find that currently holding an influential position does not cause an increase in income from outside jobs. Politicians do see higher earnings soon after leaving their parliamentary posts, but this effect is concentrated among cabinet ministers. The article advances the literature by identifying which political posts lead to financial benefits in the private sector—and when.

Constitutional Reform and the Gender Diversification of Peak Courts

Do the processes states use to select judges for peak courts influence gender diversity? Scholars have debated whether concentrating appointment power in a single individual or diffusing appointment power across many individuals best promotes gender diversification. Others have claimed that the precise structure of the process matters less than fundamental changes in the process. We clarify these theoretical mechanisms, derive testable implications concerning the appointment of the first woman to a state’s highest court, and then develop a matched-pair research design within a Rosenbaum permutation approach to observational studies. Using a global sample beginning in 1970, we find that constitutional change to the judicial selection process decreases the time until the appointment of the first woman justice. These results reflect claims that point to institutional disruptions as critical drivers of gender diversity on important political posts.

Gender, Politics and Governance: Assessment of Women’s Attitude towards Political Participation in Ekiti South Senatorial District of Southwestern Nigeria

This paper seeks to examine the gender power relations in leadership in Nigeria by assessing the women’s attitude towards political participation at different levels of political activities and investigate the factors sustaining gender inequality in politics in Ekiti South Senatorial district in Southwestern Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected for the study. Results showed that women had poor attitude towards political activities (40.3%) and the women’s level of political participation at contesting for political posts was low (22%). However, inferences drawn from the analysis of the study showed that there were significant association between women’s membership in political parties (χ2=17.292, p<0.001), age (t=3.272, p=0.001) and occupation (χ2=13.592, p=0.004). The study identified inadequate finance, insecurity, gender roles, lack of policy implementation as challenges causing gender inequality in politics. The study concludes that improving women’s attitude as crucial for bridging the gender gap in politics.

Choosing your Battles: Governor's Career Path, Spending Priorities and Performance

The managerial quality hypothesis suggests managers/leaders' quality (e.g., experience) contributes to performance. However, this proposition assumes all types of experience contribute equally to all spectra of policies. This oversimplification may explain the inconsistency in the leaders' quality-performance relationship. We offer a contingency perspective in which the performance effects of a leader's accumulated skills are contingent on (a) the nature of the leader's predominant career path (e.g., technocratic vs. political) as well as (b) the type of implementation process (e.g., administrative vs. political) a policy requires. We estimate the causal effect of leaders' career paths on spending priorities and argue that skills accumulated in technocratic posts differ from those accrued in political posts. Once in office, leaders align their differentiated set of skills with implementing and spending on certain policies to boost performance. Specifically, chief executives who pursue mainly technocratic career paths will prioritize policies requiring an administrative implementation process. In contrast, those with political career paths will prioritize policies requiring a political implementation process. We test our propositions using a panel data set of Mexican governors during the 1995-2014 period, covering four gubernatorial administrations. The causal effect of career paths on spending priorities is estimated using a two-stage regression estimation, using an instrumental variable approach combined with a generalized difference-in-differences design. Our findings suggest governors with greater technocratic experiences spend more on health policies, characterized by an administrative implementation process. On the contrary, governors with greater political career paths spend more on labor policies, characterized by a political implementation process.

On the issue of perception of political content in social networks: experience in the application of neurophysiological methodologies

The article examines the peculiarities of the young people perception of political content in social networks. The use of an objective neurophysiological oculography method for the study of visual attention has been proposed. The empirical basis of the study was the analysis of 1500 social network posts of political orientation, to which the tagging of the visual part of the message was applied and basic behavioral statistics were collected, including indicators of communicability, attractiveness and virality. This allowed to conduct a primary classification of political content and form sets of stimulating material for conducting neurophysiological research. The research experiment consisted of consecutive displaying collages of various types of political content (memes, photographs of political leaders, photographs of political events and posters) and simultaneously recording the participants eye movement behavior using a web tracker. The obtained quantitative data was used to determine the trajectory of studying the stimulus material, as well as to assess visual attention when perceiving various types of political content. The study of the stimulus material begins with viewing the image in the upper left corner (0°–45°), then moves to the lower left corner (135°–180°), regardless of the type of content. It was discovered that the average duration of fixations for different types of political content differs significantly (H=8.201, df=3, p=0.042). The most attractive are memes and photographs of political leaders, the least attractive – posters. The first fixations are caused, as a rule, by the pattern of viewing visual information. An increase in the duration of perception of a stimulus leads to a redistribution of the duration of fixations to the images most interesting for the participants in the experiment. It was revealed that the average duration of fixations on the content entails its memorability (images), as indicated by the Pearson correlation coefficient (r=0.564, p=0.023). The obtained data on the visual perception of various types of political content allows to adjust and increase the effectiveness of the communication strategy for promoting certain accounts in social networks by actors of political power.

Political party's fan page posts and online engagement on Facebook

Political party's fan page posts and online engagement on Facebook

Are businessmen a benefit to public policy? And if so, what specifically can they offer?

Research background: The closer interaction between business and government has, on a global basis, drawn attention to the “revolving doors” issue, i.e. the movement of persons between high posts in the public and private sectors. Purpose of the article: The main research question of this study covers the issue whether successful businessmen do or do not have better prospects for more effective political governance and economic policy making than career politicians or political professionals, and/or if politics and business require, for achieving their goals, similar or substantially different personal requirements. Methods: The survey was based on multidisciplinary qualitative comparative approach and literature research, covering historical, economics, management, and psychological views. This method corresponds the complex nature of the topics surveyed. Findings & Value added: The findings arrived to the conclusion that even a person successful in business may not necessarily have the expertise for effective public administration as well as sound public policy decisions. It showed that the opposite idea, coming often from businessmen circles themselves, fails to take into consideration that government, due to several reasons, cannot be operated like a business and many characteristics of successful businessmen do not fit well to high political posts, due both to their management style and “professional blindness” in terms of their approach to economic policy, e.g. international trade. Even though many management methods of successful companies can and should be taken over by the state/public administration, this goal can be achieved without the direct personal involvement of professional businessmen.

GENDER ISSUES IN THE ANTI-IMMIGRANT AGENDA OF EUROPEAN RADICAL RIGHT

An attempt to show the role of women's rights in the anti-immigrant agenda of European radical right has been undertaken in the article. The author addresses to representative trends of modern right-wing radicals in Europe. The concept of «Eurabia» and the theory of Great Replacement are used as the theoretical substantiation of the anti-migrant views of right-wing radicals. The main message of these theories is related to the fact that the decline in the birth rate in Europe, combined with the increase in migrant flows, will lead to the replacement of European politics and lifestyle with Islamic values. Radical right emphasize that the European way of life and values are fundamentally incompatible with the Muslim way of life. Moreover, within the framework of the policy of modernizing their image, right-wing radicals complement the concept of «traditional European values», which they have always defended, with «liberal» values of women's emancipation. Thus, right-wing radicals are forming the image of European enemy - a patriarchal Muslim migrant. To recreate this portrait and to identify the main features of the rhetoric of right-wing radicals regarding the threat of a migrant invasion of female emancipation, the author addresses party programs, political posters, interviews with party leaders, media materials and right-wing radical news portals. Special attention is paid to the debate about the right to wear the veil - the main pressure point for the European right, for whom veil is a kind of «banner» of Islam. The foregoing allows concluding that, on the one hand, the use of the women's rights expands the range of arguments of right-wing radicals against European migration policy, and on the other hand, it allows radical right to establish themselves as defenders of women's rights associated with human rights as the main European value.

The Language of Facebook Comments on Political Articles in Jordan

The present study aims to investigate the types of impoliteness strategies used by Jordanian Facebookers when commenting on some local political posts. To achieve this goal, one hundred comments were collected from ten political posts in Jordan. The types of impoliteness strategies were analyzed according to super and sub-strategies following the model of Culpeper (1996). The findings showed that most strategies were used by Jordanian Facebookers in political posts, including the following: bald on record, positive impoliteness, negative impoliteness, and sarcasm impoliteness. In addition, due to the religious orientation of most people, Jordanians often use supplications, a new strategy not mentioned in Culpeper (1996). Negative and sarcasm impoliteness are the most frequent super-strategies, while bald on record is the least frequently used super-strategy. Each negative and positive impoliteness has sub-strategies. Positive impoliteness is expressed into disassociating from the other, being disinterested, seeking disagreement, and using taboo words. Using taboo words is the most dominant type in positive impoliteness. Negative impoliteness is expressed into frightening, condescending, putting the other’s indebtedness on record, and associating the other with a negative aspect. Associating the other with a negative aspect is the most dominant type in negative impoliteness used by Jordanian Facebookers.

Design wizards for contemporary political poster design elements

تعد الملصقات السياسية أداة تحفيز قوية و رسالة جذب بصرية وذهنية عميقة للفرد والجمهور, وظاهرة ذات طابع اجتماعي ونفسي وتعتبر من أدوات الدعائية المؤثرة في كل الأوقات, في الحرب والسلم و الانتخابات و المظاهرات ومواقع التواصل الاجتماعي.
 اولا: مشكلة البحث:
 الملصق السياسي بصورة عامة يتكون من مجموعة من العناصر المختلفة التي يتم اختيارها بما يناسب وظيفة وهدف الملصق والتي تكون بديلاً من الكلمة المنطوقة وهذه العناصر ليست تلقائية العرض في الملصق وانما تبنى على وفق نوع من المعالجات التصميمية الواعية لها وحسب ماتقتضيها ضرورة الفعل الذهني والتطبيقي الذي يميز بها التصميم عن غيره فتلك المعالجات لها دورا واضحا في زيادة تماسك الفكرة وكيفياتها الشكلية والتقنية والاظهارية, ليصل التصميم لغرضه الاساس من التصميم وهو التأثير على الفرد وتثبيت اختياره على المعروض أمامه ,على نحو يوفّق بين الأداء الجمالي والوظيفي لها وحسب الحاجات والأغراض التصميمية المطلوبة من اجل تحقيق التواصل, فالمعالجات التصميمية تمثل الجهد الفني (الإبداعي) للمصمم وعن طريقها يستطيع إحداث التأثيرات والتعبير وتغير القناعات للمتلقين ويساعد في ايصال البحث بالدراسة, وعليه يمكن ايجاز مشكلة البحث الحالي بالتساؤل التالي:
 ماهي المعالجات التصميمية لعناصر تصميم الملصقات السياسية؟
 ثانيا: أهمية البحث:
 تبرز اهمية البحث الحالي بالاتي:
 1- يساعد في إرساء مرتكزات تطبيقية للمعالجات التصميمية لعناصر تصميم الملصقات التي تعد من المرتكزات الأساسیة الفاعلة والمؤثره في تحقیق الاهداف الفنیة التي يمكن أستخدامها وتطبيقها لاضفاء الجانب الايجابي للملصقات.
 2-امكانية اسهام هذه الدراسة في تطوير الجانب النظري للباحثين والمختصين والطلبة في مجال التصميم الطباعي فضلا عن القدرة في تطوير المهارات التطبيقية في ميدان العمل .
 
 ثالثا: هدف البحث : يهدف البحث الحالي إلى:
 الكشف عن المعالجات التصميمية لعناصر تصميم الملصق السياسي المعاصر.
 رابعا: حدود البحث: يتحرك البحث الحالي وفق الحدود الأتية:
 الحد الموضوعي: المعالجات التصميمية لعناصر تصميم الملصق السياسي المعاصر.
 الحد المكاني: الملصقات السياسية في كل من (العراق, مصر, سوريا)
 الحد الزماني: 2017 – 2018.

Decentralization of Political Design in China

Political posters, banners, and similar objects are extremely common in China. This article uses political design from contemporary China, particularly emphasizing the government's Chinese Dream campaign, to analyze what at first appears to be a paradox. The subjects of the various campaigns and the language they use are mandated by the central government and promoted through central and local publicity departments. However, the graphic aspects of these campaigns, such as the choice of colours, images, layout, and typeface, are much less strictly controlled, and are decided by local governments or authorities. This makes political design in China decentralized. Decentralized design is inconsistent with the principles of global marketing and with the PRC's reliance on set forms of political discourse, both of which rely on the assumption that uniformity will lead to more effective communication of messages and persuasion of the public. Evidence from local design campaigns indeed shows that Chinese political posters are often designed hastily and without expertise, resulting in strange and unpersuasive images. Despite this, the article shows that decentralized design is not paradoxical. This is largely because the Chinese party-state uses propaganda as a method of "signalling" its overall power, more than as a tool of indoctrination or persuasion about particular topics. The central government's reliance on incentives and metrics to regulate local authorities means that the production of propaganda is also a way in which local governments can signal their loyalty to the Centre.

The Solidarity Collection of Polish Clandestine Publications at the British Library

This article describes the history and content of the British Library’s Solidarity Collection of Polish clandestine publications. Over the past forty years, the British Library’s curators have collected Polish samizdat publications as valuable documents attesting to the struggle for freedom of speech faced with prevalent censorship. Although named after the Solidarity movement, the collection encompasses clandestine publications and ephemera from the 1970s until the end of the communist rule in Poland. A big part of the repository are donations of items smuggled to the West during the Cold War period. As of today, the collection includes 1759 books, 831 periodical titles and 548 ephemeral publications, encompassing various materials, from political posters and pamphlets to flying university lectures and postcards.