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

Political branding is an instrumental strategy employed by political leaders, empowering public opinion through multiple visual discourses. In the modern era of discourse studies, visual representation has shifted the trends that visual as nonverbal communication significantly plays a pivotal role in constructing political narrative among 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 adopts a qualitative research method and accumulates data from media representations in the political campaigns of Pakistan's major political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The study examines PTI’s campaign rhetoric and the content of party postings on social media and television to understand the political narrative. The results of the study show that each representation of PTI employs distinct colors, unique symbols, attractive images of leaders, and media regulating strategies to build up the political narrative of not only the political party but also the political personalities that persuade voters. This study implicates that PTI’s visuals are modern and target the young generation, appealing to change, and the use of social media. Consequently, this analysis established the importance of visuals and the voters’ engagement in political communications.