Full Text
Poster
Marion G. Müller
Subject
Politics
Communication Studies
»
Visual and Non-verbal Communication
DOI: 10.1111/b.9781405131995.2008.x
Extract
Posters are visual means of communicating messages to large public audiences (→ Visual Communication ). A poster is a printed mass media product (→ Printing, History of ). Although → graffiti and murals are predecessors of posters, they do not qualify as posters, since one of the defining criteria for a poster is its mass reproducibility. While graffiti and murals exist only as single objects, attached to a specific place, posters are movable objects produced in large quantities to cover a wide geographical area. The production of posters is typically event-related: political campaigns (→ Election Campaign Communication ), advertising campaigns (→ Advertising Campaign Management), or simple announcements of cultural events count among the typical events leading to poster production (→ Media Events and Pseudo-Events ). While posters in the context of an electoral or commercial campaign have to be considered as paid media , protest posters, produced for demonstrations or expressing clandestine opposition, are free media that have an end in itself and are not part of a larger, commercialized production process. Historically, the poster or “placard” as a public announcement is linked with political upheaval and war. Already in the seventeenth century Netherlands, so-called plakatten , posted to walls and other public places, were used by the Dutch to protest Spanish domination. ... log in or subscribe to read full text
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