Visual Narratives in South American Presidential Campaigns

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of images in the presidential campaigns of Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, and Ecuador, aiming to understand the significance of visual content in contemporary political communication. The particularity of this study lies in examining how electoral campaigns adapt to the prevailing attention economy—that is, how different political forces innovate and transition from the extended textual, visual, and oral paradigm of television to the synthetic audiovisual paradigm of social media. A content analysis was conducted on 15,073 posts from the two main candidates in each country on X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, collected during electoral processes between 2019 and 2023. Each post was coded as a unit of analysis, and variables related to format, visual elements, and positive reactions were classified. The procedure included methodological controls, cross-reviews, and statistical analysis using SPSS. Findings show that 66% of the content is visual, confirming the visual turn in political communication. Photography is the most commonly used format, followed by reels and long-form videos, while memes account for a minimal percentage. However, reels generate the highest number of positive reactions. TikTok and Instagram stand out as the platforms with the greatest presence of images, in contrast to X, which has a textual origin. As in other regions, South America has incorporated the primacy of images into its campaign narratives. This phenomenon reinforces the centrality of the visual dimension in digital political competition and opens new avenues for research on artificial intelligence and citizen engagement.