Saturday, March 31, 2012

Politics

Photography and politics have always gone hand in hand. Photographs can bring out the best or worst in a person, and politicians have used this to their advantage for centuries. Through social media, politicians can take advantage of photography even more.

The following photographs can have a positive effect on a politician's campaign:

Obama's photograph on Facebook advertising entry to a raffle to win "Dinner with Barack" for a campaign donation of any size.



However, photographs such as the one below can have a negative effect on a politician's campaign:



A very important thing to remember in this day and age is that with social media, photographs such as these affect politics more than ever. Now, it is not only the politicians that can use pictures to their advantage. ANYONE can post a photograph to the internet. ANYONE has the ability to edit or change the photograph to meet their agenda before posting it publicly. It is incredible the amount of influence a picture from an average citizen can have on a person's campaign!

1 comment:

  1. Such an interesting observation Alyssa. I remember talking to a friend during the last election about how the media portrayed Obama and Clinton in pictures. It almost always seemed like Obama was pictured as a calm, strong, regal, serious man. I kept noticing that just about every picture of Hillary Clinton was with her mouth open, making an awkward face, eyes squinting or wide open. His pictures always seemed so much more flattering and I asked myself who was choosing these pictures. Was it intentional? Great post.
    - Jon

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