Power of Visuals in Political Branding: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of visualatory campaigns

Abstract

Political branding is a media strategy employed by political leaders, influencing public opinion through visual discourse strategies. In the modern era of visual discourse studies, visual representation has shifted the trends towards nonverbal communication, which significantly plays a pivotal role in constructing the political narrative for the public. This study, however, investigates the power of visual branding of political representations employing multimodal visual discourse analysis (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). For this, the study ratifies a qualitative research method and gathers data from media representations in the political campaigns of Pakistan's major political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The study examines the PTI campaign's rhetoric and the content of party postings on social media to understand the political narrative. The results of the study show that each representation of PTI employs distinct colors, unique symbols, and attractive images of leaders. The media regulation strategies not only build up the political narrative of the political party but also represent political personalities that persuade the voters. This study tacitly implies that PTI's visuals are modern, target the young generation, and appeal to change, utilizing visualatory campaigns. Consequently, the analysis supports the importance of visual representations and media regulation strategies, actively engaging voters in their political desiderata.