Visuals everywhere!

Prof. Katharina Lobinger 

We live in a visual word and on social media, visuals are even a necessary precondition of success. In my talks at #ECREA2018 I focus on visual communication in political campaigning and in the strategic communication within virtual reality environments.

Together with Daniel Pfurtscheller and Cornelia Brantner I will illustrate that in political communication, “funny pictures” can be strategically used to ridicule an opponent, to present ideological views in seemingly innocent ways, and to increase engagement and prominence on social media. They can be powerful and dangerous weapons of communicative attacks. Visual and humorous expressions are often used to express hate speech and to hide it behind its “funny form”. This type of hate speech is particularly difficult to combat and thus represents a major challenge for current “networked” societies.

In a second talk, together with Elena Marchiori and Lorenzo Cantoni, I discuss the potentials and pitfalls of “spherical storytelling”: of stories told within virtual reality settings (VR). This is particularly interesting, as for example, in VR settings users are placed at the centre of the experience. They decide where to look and what to look at – quite differently to the narration of a “traditional” video where a person follows the narration of the designed contents. 

ECREA 2018 is the international conference of the most important European association bringing together researchers active in the field of communication, and taking place in Lugano from October 31 to November 3 at the Palazzo dei Congressi. For details: www.ecrea2018lugano.eu 

Institute of Digital Technologies for Communication (IDT4C)
https://search.usi.ch/en/organizational-units/19/institute-of-digital-technologies-for-communication