Echo Chamber
–Visual experience
Propaganda of Truth: Exploring the Illusion and Fragmentation of Democracy through Social Media Users’ Consumption of Political Propaganda
OBJECTIVE
We live in an era in which social media newsfeeds have become the way many obtain political information, and in which this information is presented to reach users without severity by using impulsive interactions such as likes, emojis and shares.
OPPORTUNITY
The main goal of this research is to create awareness of how people are becoming users of social media, which brings inequality and a one-sided world to users. The power that social media has created has resulted in the theory that whatever is on the screen must be factual.
APPROACH
Primary research
Written thesis
Presentations
Users participants
Visual thesis spatial design
Research
The visual exploration is based on how the audience bases their lives around propagandistic messages in the media. In the room, there is a construction of three panels where a projection of political propaganda is displayed from the news, riots, and protests. These events represent the reality and reactions of people who are against and in favor of the propaganda. The narrative used for this projection was the reality of the society. When people step inside the room where the projection is displayed, this action represents that people are a part of the reality.
Social Media Apps
Social Media Apps
Social Media Apps
VISUAL THESIS SPACE
The goal of my visual thesis project was to create a visual experience combining two different worlds. In this experience, the room was completely dark. The concept of the real world was presented where the audience walked into the room and started listening and watching the information that was in the projection and on the phones.
Video
Final Exhibition
Based on observations and participant interviews, the takeaway from the visual thesis was
At the end of this visual experience, the audience wrote their feedback on a slip of paper and put it in a ballot box that was designed for this purpose. This feedback was used to finish the conclusion of this research paper. It was important for the audience to share their opinions because the visual element created a new experience in their minds. Now, this audience is more aware of what is happening in social media and the creation of propaganda.
Some of the audience members were curious about what was inside the cubes. Some of them touched the phone and interacted with the information that was displayed on the screen. Some of them were fascinated by how the information was displayed and comprehended that social media plays a role in their lives when political information is disseminated around the platform. The participation of the audience was essential to the visual experience because most the people who walked inside the room expressed that it was a thoughtful and powerful project that represents modern society.