Dear All Apologies for the cross-posting. I believe this call may be of interest to some colleagues on this list. It is for a special issue of the Journal of Visual Political Communication, for which I am serving as guest editor. The issue is scheduled for publication in early 2026 and will focus on "Dark and Unethical Visual Politics." I warmly invite colleagues to submit their manuscripts. The full CFP text is included below. Best regards, Viktor Chagas Fluminense Federal University, Brazil ___ *Journal of Visual Political CommunicationCFP “Dark and Unethical Visual Politics” (Early 2026)* Visual Politics has gained significant prominence in recent years due to a series of controversial and unethical uses. Framing political actors, depicting contentious or satirical images, whether to build a positive interpretation or to mock authority, has always constituted a strategic and persuasive repertoire for political communication. Historically, the image was often seen as the last threshold for distinguishing facts from fakes. However the digital environment has reconfigured this status, drawing increased attention to malicious uses of images and their relation to spreading mis/disinformation and biased content. This call for papers for a special issue of the Journal of Visual Political Communication welcomes theoretical and empirical contributions concerned with these contested uses. This issue aims to bring together a body of studies focused on visual research challenges and agendas that emphasize images in contexts that are dangerous for democracy and that may pose risks to trust in institutions, threats to socio-environmental justice, or undermine current epistemic regimes, political opponents or minoritized groups. Manuscripts may present reflections on the dark side of visual politics or focus on case studies from different countries and regions. Topics may include, but are not limited to, discussions on: • Ethical and epistemological boundaries of visual political communication • Methodological aspects of investigating unethical uses of images • Generative artificial intelligence images or political deepfakes during elections • Hateful far-right memes, misogynistic and supremacist troll armies, and their political implications • The image serving anti-immigration nationalism and authoritarian populisms • Apocryphal visual campaigns and coordinated slanderous visual attacks • Critical aspects of the visual politics of disinformation as well as historical and scientific denialism • Fabrication of fake images of non-consensual pornography targeting political actors • Problems generated by algorithmic discrimination in the political arena • Cybersecurity issues concerning state visual surveillance, citizen privacy, and abusive biometric recognition • Controversial military use of computer vision in drones and autonomous weapons for human-unsupervised lethal attacks • Alteration of visual evidence to mislead the justice system or create false narratives Full papers must range between 7,000 and 9,000 words and can be co-authored. Illustrations related to the issue's theme are welcomed, as long as ethical limits for discrimination and graphic violence are taken into account and the restrictions of double-blind peer review are considered. Theoretical papers and methodological discussions are welcomed, but preferably in combination with visual material and empirical analysis of imagery. Comparative studies, historical analyses, and case studies using qualitative or quantitative approaches are also invited. The special issue also accepts proposals for curation of images, including photos, illustrations, diagrams, memes, or cartoons that relate to the dark and unethical uses of images, as long as copyright is fully respected. No APC fee is applied to the Journal of Visual Political Communication, except in case authors want to publish their articles in Open Access mode. These policies can be found here https://www.intellectbooks.com/open-access The deadlines are as follows: *Submission of manuscripts: from November 30, 2024 – April 30, 2025* *Manuscript evaluation: between April–October 2025* *Author review (when applicable): October–December 2025* *Publication scheduled for early 2026* Questions and queries can be addressed to the guest editor Viktor Chagas by email at viktor@midia.uff.br Please submit full contributions to https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-visual-political-communication ___ *Guest Editor* Viktor Chagas (Fluminense Federal University, Brazil) *Co-Editors of the Journal of Visual Political Communication* Orla Vigsø (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) Bengt Johansson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) Darren Lilleker (Bournemouth University, UK) Anastasia Veneti (Bournemouth University, UK) *Associate Editor* Helena Barbosa (University of Aveiro, Portugal) __ Kind Regards, Viktor Chagas Professor Universidade Federal Fluminense PhD in History, Politics and Cultural Assets viktor@midia.uff.br ombudsmanviktor.bio.link CV Lattes <http://lattes.cnpq.br/5832049847796420>, Google Scholar <https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=F02DKoAAAAAJ&hl=en>, OrcID <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1806-6062>, ResearchGate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Viktor-Chagas> coLAB Research Group <http://colab.uff.br>, #MUSEUdeMEMES <https://museudememes.com.br/>, INCT.dd <https://inctdd.org/> [image: https://twitter.com/ombudsmanviktor] <https://twitter.com/ombudsmanviktor> <https://instagram.com/ombudsmanviktor> <https://www.facebook.com/viktorchagas> <https://github.com/ombudsmanviktor>