record – LABS

Thesis Info

URL where full thesis can be found: www.academia.edu/36339735/The_Politics_of_Manipulated_Images_in_Social_Media-_What_do_manipulated_pictures_in_Social_Media_want_

Keywords: image manipulation, social media, doctoring, altered images, Donald Trump, Meta- Manipulation, humor, activism, propaganda

Abstract: 200-500 words: With the use of Internet and massive penetration in social media, the circulation of the images has proliferated. Many of these images which are haphazardly being fed as content have largely been manipulated to gain more viewership or even as to strengthen propaganda socially, politically and culturally which is making the social media very “unsocial”. The paper will use iconography as a methodology to examine 16 different manipulated images of Donald Trump collected from the social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). On a hypothetical note this paper will explore what do these altered digital images "want" and "what are they for" - humor, activism and propaganda. The research is important as social media develops perceptions, solely based on the images which might be discarded when it comes to the mainstream literary traditions. The focus of the paper is on images which seems more turbulent than news in the social media. In the paper manipulated images are referred as the pictures that have changed/deflected from the original narrative, or anything that goes beyond the technical and creative retouching.