This is a call for papers for an international edited volume tentatively titled ‘Visual Propaganda in an Era of Instability’. Based on distinct case studies explored in a wide range of book chapters, the main objective of the volume is to analyse the role of the image in driving public opinion and perception. The main historical period under investigation is from 2020 onwards: a time that is marked by significant social, cultural, political and ideological tensions. Whilst visual propaganda is not a new phenomenon, and contributors are very welcome to reference historical precedents, the main focus of the volume will be on the growing impact of visual propaganda since 2020.

Book chapters should critically examine the role of the image in driving, challenging or at times agitating public opinion for a clear cultural, political or ideological purpose. Often in combination with text or other contextual information, images therefore become powerful devices that have the capacity to seriously impact as well as disrupt public discourse. Whilst in the past images have been linked to notions of truth (photographic evidence in a court of law for instance), this volume recognizes the power of the image to distort or outright lie by omission. In this context, the volume will pay particular attention to images that appear believable though which are “shopped” or which are entirely generated by Artificial Intelligence. The volume will explore to what extent ideas about the truthfulness of images have now become outdated or even redundant.

The volume recognizes the very significant as well as understudied role of the image in the formation of public opinion. The volume takes the position that this public opinion and perception can be shaped, and that images have a very clear and distinct role to play in this process. Images, therefore, are not merely passive depictions of a particular subject, but rather, they become active tools in a political process that is unfolding today. The volume will investigate the role of visual propaganda and counter-propaganda from a wide range of sources including from global organizations, governments or government departments, down to the efforts of grassroots movements or the individual. The volume will investigate how visual propaganda can be observed in the fields of politics and political campaigns, war and military, ideology and authoritarian regimes, advertising and commercial marketing, culture and cultural diplomacy, public health, social movements and activism, religion and moral campaigns as well as education and media.

Both the reach as well as the focus of this volume will be global. Book chapters should provide original, timely and rigorous analyses of images in specific cultural, political, ideological and geographic contexts. These images can include photographs, films, GIFs, memes, videos, graphics, illustrations, posters, moving images, film stills, visual campaigns or indeed any other form of visual media. Some of the key questions the volume will explore are: How does visual propaganda look like today? How effective is it? How is it adapting to new technologies? And how is it evolving into the future? Whilst contributors of this volume will come from a broad disciplinary background, and whilst the volume embraces interdisciplinary methods, a close reading as well as critical analysis of images should be foregrounded in the case studies. The critical analysis of images should also help a broader aim of the volume and that is to remain as politically neutral and objective as possible. In other words, the volume is not seeking to evaluate the validity of a political position, but rather, it seeks to evaluate the role of the image used for the purpose of propaganda.

A 250-word abstract and a 50-word short bio should be sent to the editor of the volume Marco Bohr at marco.bohr@ntu.ac.uk  by the 1st of September 2026. The abstract should include at least one representative image with a full caption. Contributors will be contacted by the 15th of September whether the abstract has been accepted for publication. The deadline for the full-length book chapter of 6,000 words and up to eight images will be the 1st of February 2027. Whilst image clearance is not required for the abstract, contributors should note that if selected for publication, all images featured in the chapter will require clearance and that there is no budget available for that.  

Marco Bohr has previously published the following edited volumes:

Bohr, Marco (2022), Capture Japan: Visual Culture and the Global Imagination from 1952 to the Present.London: Bloomsbury. 

Bohr, Marco and Sliwinska, Basia (2018), The Evolution of the Image: Political Action and the Digital Self. London: Routledge.