Election Deception

The saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. But which words? Political photos are plastered all across presidential hopefuls’ campaigns and they have the power to heavily influence the public's opinion about the candidates. These supposed candid shots, that appear to have nothing to hide, are masterfully crafted and are designed to manipulate our perceptions. We have become so used to viewing visual images at lightning speed and with increased frequency, that we are not even aware of all the subliminal messaging and visual cues our brains are processing. Author Roland Barthes lets us go back in time and revisit the campaign posters of old and of yesteryear to seek to uncover how they are staged, how this phenomenon is significant enough to change outcomes, and why we need to be paying more attention.