The School of Politics and International Relations has launched a new series of blog posts, underlining its commitment to using social media to share research and further a wider understanding of politics.

Picturing Politics will use video and audio clips to examine and comment on significant political images.

It follows a highly successful blog, Ballots & Bullets. The School also has a YouTube channel, Politics in 60 Seconds, where academics explain political concepts or ideas in less than a minute.

Picturing Politics is being launched this month and will cover a diverse range of images including Thomas More’s Map of the Island of Utopia, The Polling by William Hogarth and the works of Cézanne. Other topics covered will include 9/11, far-right extremism and the Mexican Revolution.

PhD student Chris Burgess, who curated an exhibition of political posters at the People’s History Museum, will be discussing the various ways in which voters have been depicted in election campaign posters.

It is hoped the project will offer an invaluable insight into how politics has been imagined throughout history, and also the ways in which images have been used to influence understanding of politics.

Professor of Political History Steven Fielding said: “Picturing Politics builds on our past innovations in the use of social media so as to promote a better understanding of political issues. It will confirm our staff as amongst the most innovative and engaging of British academics.”

Visit http://nott.ac.uk/politics  where Picturing Politics is being launched and Ballots & Bullets and Politics in 60 Seconds can also be viewed.