The Effects of Digital Media Images on Political Participation Online: Results of an Eye‐Tracking Experiment Integrating Individual Perceptions of “Photo News Factors”

Research in communication and political science has underlined the relevance of participation offline and online for the performance and stability of democratic societies, and shown that media has a substantial impact on people's willingness to participate in political discourses. However, the impact of visual message features, prevalent in contemporary online environments, on political participation online remains unclear and needs further research. This article examines two research questions: How and under what conditions do digital news media images trigger political online participation? Which roles do specific image features (“photo news factors” such as negativity, emotionality, visual attraction, or saliency) play in this respect? Based on an experimental study integrating eyetracking measurement, our empirical analysis reveals that individuals are more willing to politically participate online, if they perceive news media images with specific “photo news factors”: press photography individuals acknowledge as surprising, emotional, attractive, newsworthy, that is geographically proximal, controversial, relevant, or salient. We also find that the sensory perception of news media images can cause a positive and significant impact. If the media image is regarded as being newsworthy or as negative by individual recipients, they are more likely to then engage in online participation.