Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hvcq20
Download by: [Taesik Kim] Date: 06 February 2016, At: 23:06
Visual Communication Quarterly
ISSN: 1555-1393 (Print) 1555-1407 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hvcq20
Defining the Occupy Movement: Visual Analysis of
Facebook Profile Images Posted by Local Occupy
Movement Groups
Tae-Sik Kim
To cite this article: Tae-Sik Kim (2015) Defining the Occupy Movement: Visual Analysis of
Facebook Profile Images Posted by Local Occupy Movement Groups, Visual Communication
Quarterly, 22:3, 174-186, DOI: 10.1080/15551393.2015.1069192
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15551393.2015.1069192
Published online: 16 Dec 2015.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 17
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Visual Communication Quarterly Volume 22 July – September 2015174
T
hroughout 2011, people observed angry
protestors around the world
demonstrating for “better” living
conditions. The Tunisian revolution at
the dawn of the year was the first mass civil
resistance event, and it was followed by unrest in
North Africa and the Middle East. The
movement begun by Tunisia is now known as the
Arab Spring. On the other side of the earth where
the political economic context was remarkably
different from the aforementioned region, a
historic mass movement erupted with the famous
catchphrases “Occupy Wall Street” and “We Are
the 99%.” The slogans and forms of mass protest
originated in New York City and soon spread to
urban centers throughout the world. Even though
the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement do
not share political goals or socioeconomic
contexts, the two movements have commonly
adopted social network sites such as Twitter and
Facebook in spreading issues and recruiting
participants (Skinner, 2011). As already explored
in many academic articles, new communication
technology has played an important role in
creating networks among citizens and gaining
international attention and support (e.g., Cottle,
2011). In particular, the Occupy Movement,
which first broke out in one of the most
technologically advanced countries in the world,
effectively utilized Facebook. Over 400 Facebook
group pages were set up by various levels of
Occupy groups in the United States in the early
stages of the movement (Caren & Gaby, 2011).
Defining the Occupy Movement: Visual Analysis of
Facebook Profile Images Posted by Local Occupy
Movement Groups
This visual study analyzes a total of 188 profile images posted on local Occupy
group Facebook pages in order to identify how images adopted by local movement
groups reflect the characteristics of the movements. By analyzing text, image, and
color components of profile images, this study finds that certain design concepts
and components are widely shared by local Occupy groups, which reflects the
representational characteristic of the Occupy movement as a networked movement.
Also, the Occupy Movement can be seen as an extension of traditional social
movements because of a wide adoption of design components that are historically
symbolic images and colors of social movements.
Tae-Sik Kim
Facebook is currently a leading social network
site, with more than 1 billion users around the
world (Tate, 2012). Like other social network
sites, there are a variety of features that
strengthen networks of users on Facebook,
allowing its users to reveal their identities and to
share everyday stories, information, and
multimedia content. Among the many features
on Facebook, the profile image, which is always
visible on a certain user’s or group’s page,
timeline, search results, and friend suggestions, is
effective in presenting the identity of a certain
user or group. While there have been multiple
studies on identity display and profiles on
Facebook (e.g., Grasmuck, Martin, & Zhao,
2009), little is known specifically about the
semiotic roles of profile images. Moreover, no
research has paid exclusive attention to group
profile images on Facebook. For recent social
movements, Facebook is more than a mere
network of people; it is not only the recruiting
center of a movement but is also the main media
outlet for communicating with people. A profile
image of a movement group on Facebook is
likely to be the face of its communication center
(Juris, 2012). Therefore, this study presumes that
profile images provide useful data for
understanding the orientations, purposes, and
visions of a social movement. The visual analysis
begins with such questions as, What kinds of
images were displayed on the Facebook group
pages of the Occupy Movement?, and How do
those images represent the movement? In order to
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication QuarterlyPages 175174–186
provide a full range of visual understandings, this
study (a) categorizes text, image, and color
components of profile images; (b) interprets
symbolic meanings of design concepts and
components; and (c) discusses the way these
images represent and define the movement.
Facebook and Local Occupations
TIME named “the Protester” its Person of the
Year in 2011, highlighting the ubiquitous social
movements against political economic regimes
across the world (Anderson, 2011). As soon as
the first Occupy encampment in New York City
began, the forms and issues of Occupy Wall
Street were taken up by local groups of people in
82 countries; the occupation in Boston was called
for on September 27, 2011 (Juris, 2012), and the
movement emerged in Sydney, Australia, in early
October 2011 (Jackson & Chen, 2012). “Occupy”
quickly became a common name of worldwide
encampment sites that shared the famous slogan
“We Are the 99%.” On the other hand, the
movement was also strongly grounded locally,
raising a variety of local political economic
issues, as was shown in the Oakland general
strike (Wells, 2011).
Communication among social network sites
played a crucial role in making this globally
networked local movement possible. In fact,
recent studies have shown that the movement
could not have become a worldwide event
without social network sites such as Facebook
and Twitter (e.g., DeLuca, Lawson, & Sun,
2012). Along with hashtags (#) on Twitter,
user-generated groups and events pages on
Facebook were widely adopted by organizers and
activists in the movement (Gaby & Caren, 2012).
A user-generated group is one of popular features
on Facebook by which people can form a group
with either open membership or closed
membership. Studies on Facebook groups formed
by politically active people, such as members of
the Coffee Party and the Tea Party (Mascaro,
Novak, & Goggins, 2012) and supporters of
presidential candidates (Woolley, Limperos, &
Oliver, 2010), commonly reveal that a Facebook
group is an effective feature for mobilizing people
and organizing political events. In the United
States alone, over 400 Occupy-related Facebook
group pages were established in the early stages
of the movement, and most of them were set up
by specific local occupations (Caren & Gaby,
2011). According to Caren and Gaby (2011), 66%
of Facebook activity, such as posting and
commenting, was happening on local group
pages in October 2011. Therefore, it is important
to understand Occupy Movement group activities
on Facebook in order to comprehend
characteristics of the movement. Nevertheless,
few studies have been conducted to analyze
Facebook Occupy groups, with the exception of
an analysis of postings on Facebook Occupy
group pages (Gaby & Caren, 2012).
Like an individual Facebook user, a group can
build its own profile information, including a
profile image. While all members can
individually post their own messages and
multimedia content on the wall of a group page,
administrators have the exclusive right to build
the front page, which is always exposed to other
Facebook users. Administrators who initially
found or joined a certain local Occupy group
strategically built the group’s profile information,
including profile images, in order to impress users
who might be interested in the group. In the case
of a closed group on Facebook, the profile image
plays a more important role in informing
nongroup members about the characteristics of
the group because the image, along with the
name of the group, is the only information
nongroup members have in order to form an
impression on their first approach. In their
analysis of posts on Occupy group pages on
Facebook, Gaby and Caren (2012) pointed out
that visual media, such as pictures and videos,
were powerful in gaining movement support.
This finding supports the assertion that profile
images, as the first visual representations of local
Occupy groups, are important objects to analyze.
Facebook users rely most heavily on profile
images to create impressions about their own
personalities (Ivcevic & Ambady, 2012), a finding
supported by previous research arguing that
profile images give accurate cues for predicting
people’s personal traits (Rule & Ambady, 2008).
Although no study has been conducted to
specifically analyze profile images on Facebook
group pages, this study assumes that each local
Occupy group posted its own profile image to
attract Facebook users, to express issues and
orientations of its movement, and to stress its
identity in relation to its location.
Visual Images in Social Movements
Pictorial images have long been used by
protesters to deliver their messages to the public.
One of the important functions of street art,
including posters and graffiti, is the mobilization
of social movements by tapping into human
emotions and gauging political sentiment.
Artwork also makes it possible for participants to
be active in a political event (Chaffee, 1993).
With the emergence of various electronic media
technologies, political communication in civil
society has relied more on images, such as
iconography, to draw public attention to issues
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication Quarterly Volume 22 July – September 2015176
and events (Szasz, 1994). In fact, DeLuca (2005)
called contemporary social movements image
events, stressing that performative protests
produce images to be disseminated by mass
media. These images generate a form of
counterargument and compel the public to
empathize with protesters (Deluca & Peeple,
2002).
The Occupy Movement was first publicized not
only by the 99% rhetoric but also by the famous
image of a ballerina dancing on the Wall Street
bull (Figure 1). Along with signs and banners
conveying various messages of the movement,
posters were produced intensively by
participatory artists. These images were rapidly
shared by users of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs;
Daily Kos, a famous progressive blog, introduced
poster images produced in the early phase of the
movement. Occupy Posters, a Facebook group
launched in the very beginning of the movement,
posted and shared numerous poster images, along
with various informational graphics. In the world
of Facebook, the front page of an individual page
or a group page is called the wall. Just as
protesters post political posters and draw graffiti
on public walls in the street to deliver their
messages to the public, online administrators of
activists groups post digitized images of posters
and informational graphics on their virtual walls.
Previous studies on image use in social
movements have explored the reciprocal
relationships between political visual images and
communication technologies (e.g., DeLuca, 2005;
Szasz, 1994). According to Szasz (1994),
Political communication increasingly relies
on the production and display of political
icons rather than symbols, iconography
rather than rhetoric, . . . because it is
assumed that displays of spectacular
images are the only way to break through
the indifference of the intended audience.
(pp. 62–63)
Framing is an important process of producing
meaning for both participants and observers
(Snow & Benford, 1988, in Adams, 2002), and
various studies suggest that framing plays a
crucial role in attracting participants (e.g.,
Benford, 1993). Most of these studies rather
exclusively focus on formal ideological
pronouncements such as speeches; however, the
study of images is more effective in making
meaning about social movements (Adams, 2002;
Szasz, 1994), which are sites for creating new
identities, ideologies, and social orientations
(Friedman & McAdam, 1992). Visual images as
cultural signs can define the common shared
identities of activists and the long-term
orientations of movements.
Visual Analysis
As a social movement, the Occupy Movement
produced various kinds of communicative signs,
such as slogans and symbols, to fully
communicate with the public. As reviewed
earlier, communication in a social movement is
important for recruiting new participants and
persuading the mass public. Various
communicative signs, including visual images
used in social movements, need to promote
culturally agreed-upon meanings in order to
optimize persuasive effect, so effective visual
images and texts must be based on prior
experiences and cultural codes (Kristeva, 1980).
Therefore, cultural understandings of images
become important theoretical ground for
analyzing the sociohistorical meanings, purposes,
and orientations of social movements.
In semiotics, a symbolic image is neither an
object nor an independent entity. Instead, it is
subject to interpretation grounded in history and
past experiences. Barthes (1977) introduced the
notion of “social usage,” claiming that every
concept of a word is subject to how a sender uses
it. Based on the understanding of the central role
of history in shaping social usage, this study
regards history and culture as the structure
operating the sign system in a given society.
Figure 1 A ballerina dancing on the Wall Street bull.
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication QuarterlyPages 177174–186
According to Barthes (1977), pictorial images
impose meanings directly and “become a kind of
writing as soon as they are meaningful” (p. 110).
Peirce’s model of signs (1991) can be useful in
interpreting these images by systemically looking
at their iconic, indexical, and symbolic
significances: An iconic image conveys a message
with its resemblance to the signified object; an
indexical image indicates the causal relationship
between the image and the reality; and a
symbolic image represents meanings of the
reality based on social norms, customs, and
contexts. Therefore, the semiotic interpretation of
images may reveal both what the image
producers aim to communicate and how the
audiences perceive the images. Because symbols
carry “a history of representation, association,
and relation” (Barry, 1997, p. 119), the
interpretation of Facebook group profile images
may give us insights into how the activists of the
Occupy Movement historically and culturally
located their social movement in contemporary
society.
Although the Occupy Movement was initiated on
Wall Street, New York, the issues and practices
of the movement were quickly adopted by local
activist groups. While a local group may locate
its position as an extension of a global
movement, it may also develop its own local
agenda based on local sociohistorical contexts.
Visual images utilized by local groups as their
profile images on a communicative platform,
therefore, were expected to signify multiple
meanings, such as local activism, localized global
activism that shared issues with the Occupy Wall
Street Movement, and conventional social
dissident movements. Grounded in these
historical and cultural understandings of visual
images in social movements, this study aims
mainly to find answers to these research
questions:
RQ1: What kinds of text and image
components were utilized as Facebook
group profile images by local Occupy
groups?
RQ 2: How do the images represent
characteristics and orientations of the
Occupy Movement?
In order to provide meaningful answers to these
questions, this study categorized individual
components in the profile images and analyzed
connotative meanings of the categorized
components. Once analyzed as meaningful units,
semiotic codes of the image components were
expected to explain how the Occupy Movement
was possibly defined by images posted by local
groups.
Data Collection
The investigator first conducted data collection
by using the Facebook search bar and typing the
word occupy. The data collection was continued
by clicking “see more results” more than 20 times
until no new group page was listed. Selective
sampling (Schatzman & Strauss, 1973) was used
to collect data matching the framework of this
study. Since this study aimed at analyzing images
used by local Occupy groups, topical Occupy
group pages like Occupy Food were excluded.
Statewide and nationwide group pages were also
excluded from the study in order to balance the
level of groups. A total of 191 local Occupy
group pages were collected on January 25, 2013.
The investigator again visited each of the 191
Occupy group pages 15 days after the first data
collection in order to identify profile images that
had been used only temporarily by groups. Three
profile images were excluded from the study, and
thus a total of 188 profile images posted by local
Occupy groups on Facebook were finally selected
as the study sample.
This study employed semiotic visual analysis that
was expected to give answers to the two most
important questions of semiotics: What is
represented?, and What is hidden in images? (Van
Leeuwen, 2001). However, this study also
provided frequency data for each component in
order to help readers categorically understand the
design components of profile images. While this
basic content analysis procedure was mainly
aimed at identifying denotative elements of
collected images, the categorization also allowed
the investigator to interpret meanings of the
common uses of certain design components. Two
research assistants cross-checked the categorized
design components in order to avoid missing any
important information.
Findings
Text Components
There were only 19 profile images that did not
contain any text component (Table 1). Most texts
on profile images denoted messages indicating
the characteristics and orientations of the
movement. However, some text components were
combined with other text and image components
to create symbolic meanings. Over 70% of the
collected images contained the word occupy (138
items). A total of 116 items included the name of
a city, which was actually part of the name of a
group, such as Occupy Cleveland (Figure 2-1).
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication Quarterly Volume 22 July – September 2015178
The word occupy and the name of a city
delivered the indexical meaning of the image as a
profile image of a local Occupy group. The word
occupy was also symbolically used to express
activism. The word was centrally located on a
symbolic image of one city, the coat of arms of
Perth, while the Occupy Binghamton group used
the text Occupied instead of Occupy, overlapped
on the official seal of the city (Figure 2-2). The
word occupy in these cases not only defined their
identities as local Occupy groups but also sent a
strong message of their activism by using the
literal meaning of occupy.
Although the Occupy Movement, called Occupy
Wall Street, was initiated in New York City, the
slogan Occupy Together was quickly adopted by
participants in the movement, signifying that the
meaning of the movement was not confined to
New York or the United States (Waldram, 2011).
It was first used as a Twitter tag and as the
domain name of a sort of headquarters website,
occupytogether.org, listing ongoing actions and
issues in the world (Czaja, 2011). The phrase
Occupy Together used in a profile image simply
denoted the identity of the group. At the same
time, however, this shared use of the phrase
symbolically stressed that the group was in an
extension of the networked movement. For
example, the Occupy Bratislava group used its
profile image with the slogan Occupy Together
and a map of the Slovak Republic indicating the
location of Bratislava (Figure 2-3). Although this
image clearly indicated the geographical location
of Bratislava, it referenced the design concept of
the Occupy Together poster (Figure 2-4).
Therefore, the profile image of the Bratislava
Occupy Movement group not only signified its
locality but also identified itself as part of the
networked movement.
“We Are the 99%,” one of the most popular
political slogans of the Occupy Movement
(Weinstein, 2011), was also used in many profile
images (36 items). The number 99% (or the
slogan “We Are the 99%”) delivered both
symbolic and indexical meanings of the
movement. By contrasting the number 99 to the
number 1, the slogan symbolically emphasized
economic inequality, and most people who were
interested in the movement could identify
themselves with this number (Smucker, 2011).
The rhetoric of 99% was more symbolic than
factual, highlighting economic conditions and
making people feel related to one other. On the
other hand, because of its prominence, the slogan
referred to the Occupy Movement itself. For
example, the Occupy Brisbane group used a
picture of protesters gathered in front of a banner
with the slogan “We Are the 99%” for its profile
image (Figure 2-5). Although there was no other
image component indicating its relation to the
Occupy Movement, the banner in the image conveyed
the identity of the group to Facebook users.
Although a total 123 profile images indicated the
names of cities, the profile image of Occupy
Kingston was the only one that did not include
the word occupy. One interesting profile image
signified multiple meanings by using textual
components; the profile image of Occupy Orange
County (Figure 2-6) used the symbolic image of
an orange, which is associated with the name of
the county, and on the orange was the slogan
Stop the Squeeze. This phrase was analogically
used with the innuendo of juicing the orange to
demand the end of economic inequality.
Table 1 Text Components
Features					Number of Items			
Images with “Occupy”			 138
(“Occupy” only)				 5
(“Occupy” & city name)			 116
(with “Occupy Together”)			 14
(Others)					3
Images without “Occupy”			 31
Images with only city name without “Occupy”	 1
Images without text				19
Total number of images 			 188
*(Images with the 99% slogan)		 36
*(Images with the name of city) 		 123				
*Separately counted numbers regardless of other components.
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication QuarterlyPages 179174–186
Image Components
Local images. A total of 53 items included image
components symbolically or directly referring to
the cities in which their groups were grounded
(Table 2). Local symbolic images were the most
popular components, followed by iconic images
of cityscapes and local maps. There were
different kinds of symbols, such as an emblem of
the city (Figure 3-1), a representative monument
(Figure 3-2), and a famous local logo (Figure
3-3), which all indicated the locations of the
groups by providing symbolic cues. In case of
Occupy Norman, the Route 66 road sign was
used to symbolize the location of the group
(Figure 3-4). However, the image was upside
down, transforming the number 66 to 99,
representing the slogan “We Are the 99%.” In
this case, the symbol had a double connotation,
indicating the orientation as well as the location
of the group.
Iconized local cityscapes, such as silhouettes of
cities, were also often used as important
components of profile images to stress groups’
localities. The iconized cityscape could easily be
recognized by local people, but the iconic image
was not used only to represent the locality. For
example, Occupy Memphis used a profile image
composed of an illustration of pyramid, a famous
structure in the city (Figure 3-5). Although the
pyramid on the image was an iconic sign
representing the city, the image component also
delivered an Occupy Movement message by
contrasting the small, black top of the pyramid
and its large, white base. Also, the text 99%
explained the double meaning of the pyramid. In
addition, sharing a design concept with other
groups was another way to signify the meaning
of the networked movement. Occupy groups
located in three California cities, Los Angeles,
San Francisco, and Santa Barbara (Figure
3-6–3-8), shared the same design concept
involving one iconic local structure, the word
occupy, and the acronym of the city. Other than
these three cities, most profile images designed
with silhouette images of cityscapes conveyed
similar impressions to viewers with black
iconized images, the conspicuous text of Occupy,
and the name of the city.
Another way to emphasize local group status was
by using the image of a local or national map on
a profile image. While Occupy groups in the
United States mainly used state maps along with
the locations of cities on maps (Figure 3-9),
groups in other countries like New Zealand and
the United Kingdom used national maps
indicating certain locations (Figure 3-10). These
maps on profile images indexically informed
Facebook users about the locations of the groups.
As explained earlier, the iconic image of a map
was initially used by Occupy Together. Therefore,
it can be said that these groups shared the design
concept, which was widely known to the public,
while reflecting their localities.
Figure 2 (2-1) Cleveland, OH, USA; (2-2) Binghamton, NY, USA; (2-3) Bratislava, Slovak Republic; (2-4) Occupy Together;
(2-5) Brisbane, Australia; (2-6) Orange County, CA, USA.
Figure 3 (3-1) El Paso, TX, USA; (3-2) Tulsa, OK, USA; (3-3) London, UK; (3-4) Norman, OK, USA; (3-5) Memphis, TN, USA;
(3-6) Los Angeles, CA, USA; (3-7) San Francisco, CA, USA; (3-8) Santa Barbara, CA, USA; (3-9) Fresno, CA, USA; (3-10)
Plymouth, UK.
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication Quarterly Volume 22 July – September 2015180
Images of dissidence. There were mainly three
kinds of image components stressing the social
activism of the Occupy groups on Facebook.
First, protesters were commonly used as a central
image component, reflecting activism. While 23
profile images were composed of photographic
images of protesters and occupations, another 12
images contained iconic images depicting
protesters. Photographic images captured at the
actual scenes of mass protests and occupations
were also strategically used to signify multiple
purposes of the movement groups. For example,
although the profile image of Occupy Vienna was
composed of a single photographic image
without any text or other image components, the
famous statue Reiterstandbild Erzherzog Karls
was located in the center of the image along with
protesters, denoting the location of the group
(Figure 4-1). On the other hand, the Occupy
Dayton group used a photographic image of
protesters that included a man wearing a Guy
Fawkes mask (Figure 4-2), a symbolic image of
dissidence that reinforced the meaning related to
the orientation of the group. As Barthes said
(1977), these objects in photographs constituted
elements of signification.
A clenched fist was another popular image
component reflecting the traditional meaning of
social activism; it was centrally placed in 24
profile images (Figure 4-3). It is generally known
that the clenched fist originated in the Weimar
Republic and was quickly adopted by
communists in Germany, and the image was
widely used by the Popular Front in France and
during the Spanish Civil War (Korff, 1993).
According to Korff (1993), the image of a
clenched fist was symbolically adopted by the
Red Front in Germany to distinguish their radical
movement from the social democratic labor
movement (p. 117). Therefore, a clenched fist
came to symbolize radical political movements,
especially leftist groups, in the early 20th century
in the Western world. In the late 20th century,
civil rights activists in the United Sates actively
adopted the image, symbolizing resistance to the
status quo (Goodman, 2012) Also, in 1969
Socialist International adopted the combination
of a clenched fist and a red rose as its official logo
(Sawer, 2007). Although the image has been
occasionally used by white supremacists in the
Western world, it was adopted by left-leaning
activists and groups throughout the last century.
A total of six Occupy Movement groups on
Facebook used a Guy Fawkes mask as the main
image component of their group profile images.
The Guy Fawkes mask, which was illustrated by
David Lloyd in Alan Moor’s graphic novel V for
Vendetta, became widely known because of the
film of the same title in 2006. Once demonized in
the United Kingdom, Guy Fawkes has come to
symbolize dissidence in pop cultural products,
and this symbol was actively adopted by the new
social movement. The Guardian called it “the
face of protest in 2011,” and many protesters in
Occupy movements around the world wore the
same mask (Jones, 2011). Although the mask was
hardly grounded in history, the new meaning
created together by cultural products and wide
use by protesters was quickly shared by people
around the world. Adopting this meaning, for
example, Occupy Paris (Figure 4-4) used the
image of the mask and the image of the Eiffel
tower together with no accompanying text
component to identify itself as a local dissident
movement group.
Other image components. While those symbolic
images of dissidence referenced historical and
cultural meanings, some image components like
the charging bull on Wall Street and a
photographic image of a bank more directly
expressed the main issue raised by the Occupy
Movement (Figure 4-5). The charging bull as a
symbol of Wall Street, the symbolic center of
Table 2 Image Components
Features	 	Number of Items			Features		Number of Items			
Local		53				Protester		34
(Local symbol)	 25				 Clenched fist	 24
(Iconic cityscape)	12				 Anticapitalism	 6
(Local map)	 9				 Guy Fawkes	 6
(Local scenery) 	 6				 Environmental 	 4
(Others) 	 1				 Hands		 4
Nation		18				Red patch	4
							No image		20				
Note. Those that were composed with multiple image components were counted multiple times.
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication QuarterlyPages 181174–186
global capitalism, was significant for the
movement: The Occupy Movement was initiated
with the name of Occupy Wall Street; the first
occupation was held in Zuccoti Park, located on
Wall Street; and Wall Street is the center of
financial capitalism, which is targeted as the
main culprit in the 99% problem.
On the other hand, famous symbolic signs like
the olive branch, the peace sign, and the V sign
created with two fingers were also placed on
some profile images (Figure 4-6). These images
all have clear historical references and have been
widely used in various social events to signify the
ends of conflicts. Thus, the use of these signs on
profile images was interpreted to express a desire
for resolving conflicting socioeconomic
situations. In addition, images reflecting
environmental messages were used by four
groups. Although the environment was not a
main issue of the Occupy movement, the
message of the green movement, which was
recognized as an important contemporary social
movement, was adopted to broaden the scope of
the Occupy movement (Figure 4-7).
Some profile images were composed of other
image components that delivered the multiple
meanings of the movement. For example, the
Occupy Miami Facebook group used a profile
image composed of four image components;
seeing the profile image, a user could identify the
location with a palm tree, the characteristics with
a clenched fist and red patch, and the orientation
of the movement with a UN logo-like symbol
featuring an azimuthal projection and an olive
branch (Figure 4-8).
Color Components
Red and black were the two most dominant
colors, strengthening the semiotic meanings of
other text and image components. While 44
profile images were either red or black only, 65
were both (Table 3). The two colors were also
combined with other colors, such as blue or
yellow, and some were full color. More
important, red and black were the most common
colors for central text and image components. For
example, the most common text component,
Occupy, was usually red or black (85 items) or
was white on a red or black background (18
items). In addition, 20 out of the 24 clenched fists
used in profile images were red or black.
In the history of social movements, activists and
organizers have often adopted various red and
black logos because “red and black are passionate
colors, conveying emotions of revolution, death,
and violence” (Chaffe, 1993, p. 6). The history of
red in social movements is traced back to the
Jacobin tradition of the French Revolution.
Later, this color more exclusively symbolized
proletarian activism during a series of revolutions
in 1848, with the red flag symbolizing labor
movements (Korff, 1993). Since then, red has
Figure 4
(4-1) Vienna, Austria;
(4-2) Dayton, OH, USA;
(4-3) Akron, OH, USA;
(4-4) Paris, France;
(4-5) Durham, NC, USA;
(4-6) Lubbock, TX, USA;
(4-7) Lancaster, PA,
USA; (4-8) Miami, FL,
USA.
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication Quarterly Volume 22 July – September 2015182
been widely adopted by left-leaning political
groups, events, and states, such as the Paris
Commune in 1871, the Red Army of the Soviet
Union, and the Five-Star Red Flag of the
People’s Republic of China. In the realm of
social movements, the color black was initially
associated more with anarchism than with
Communism in the 19th century. Black was once
adopted as the color of the Fascist Movement in
Italy and was subsequently adopted by fascists in
other countries like the United Kingdom and
Germany (Sawer, 2007). Despite the political
discordance signified by black, it has historically
connoted radical activism and has been
associated with radical groups, such as the Black
Panthers in the 1960s United States. The Occupy
groups also often used red and black to produce
posters widely exposed to the public, so the
common color composition of red and black
became very visible anywhere there were Occupy
sites, including the Internet. Although red and
black were widely used by local Occupy groups
as the color components of their Facebook profile
images, the two colors did not specifically
symbolize the Occupy Movement, unlike recent
social movements that were symbolized by
colors, such as the Orange Revolution in 2004
Ukraine and the Umbrella Revolution (Yellow) in
2014 Hong Kong.
Other than red and black, green, yellow, and blue
were used as the main color components of a few
profile images. Some of those represented local
symbolic colors instead of delivering political
messages. For example, the Occupy Lexington
group used blue, which is the symbolic color of
the University of Kentucky located in Lexington,
as the main color of its profile image.
Discussion
Findings of this study are rather obvious because
the data were collected from local Occupy groups
on Facebook. A majority of local Occupy groups
used profile images designed with text and image
components that both explicitly and implicitly
showed groups’ localities. However, most groups
not only applied local-related components to their
profile images but also jointly used other text,
image, and color components to signify multiple
meanings reflecting multifaceted orientations of
the movement. To sum up the findings, this study
mainly discusses two distinct characteristics of
the Occupy Movement represented through the
uses of visual images in online communications.
A Networked Movement
As reviewed before, the Occupy Movement has
been a worldwide event. Mass protests held in
cities around the world have shared issues,
slogans, and methods of recruitment. While the
Occupy Movement has often been called a global
movement (Anderson, 2011), it has also been
typified as a locally networked movement
(Uitermark & Nicholls, 2012) because often local
groups of people have held daily events in their
own locales concerning specified local issues.
These different levels of the movement were
harmonized by a network, facilitated mainly by
various online communication tools. Facebook
profile images of online Occupy groups also
effectively reflected the characteristics of the
networked movement.
A large number of local Occupy groups shared
various design concepts and components with
other groups. Although there was no official
headquarters of this worldwide movement, several
websites built by anonymous groups of people
played central roles in distributing these concepts
and components. The Occupy Wall Street website
(http://occupywallst.org) has been active as a kind
of symbolic online center for the Occupy
Movement since the beginning of the movement;
many text and image components and color
Table 3 Color Components
Features	 		Number of Items		Features			Number of Items		
Mainly Black		62			Multidominant Colors	34
(black only)		 31			 (black & red)		 23
(with red)		 24	 		 (red & blue)		 9
(with other colors)	 7	 		 (others)			 2
Mainly Red 		32			Full Color			50
(red only) 		 11			 (full-color photo)		 29
(with black)		 18			 (photo with red stress)	 8
(with other colors)	 3			 (others)			 13
							Others			10
							Total			188
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication QuarterlyPages 183174–186
combinations of profile images found in this study
were originally posted in this site. Because of its
originality, along with its role as a symbolic center,
the site might be regarded as the main supplier of
various informational and practical sources to
local activists. The Occupy Together website
(http://www.occupytogether.org) also played a
key role in defining the Occupy Movement by
providing such information as how to mobilize
people and how to make the movement more
visible, although the site never claimed to be the
headquarters of the Occupy Movement. Occupy
Together was a portal site that linked users to a
variety of Occupy-related information sources,
such as Occupy Design (http://occupydesign.org).
Because all these websites were linked to their own
Facebook and Twitter accounts, contents posted
on the web could be widely disseminated to an
unspecified public.
While some local Occupy groups on Facebook
designed profile images based on their own
designs, many others borrowed and modified
design concepts and components from various
visual images originally posted on Occupy
Together and Occupy Design. It is possible to
interpret this borrowing to mean that a limited
pool of personnel in a local group made
borrowing necessary. However, using shared
images might also be effective as a way for local
groups to impress viewers because of the images’
repeated exposure in media and on the Internet.
In addition, local groups symbolically shared
issues, orientations, and ideologies of the Occupy
Movement by making those widely accepted
signs visible on their online centers. Local
Occupy groups could legitimize their local
activism by stressing their connectedness with the
huge wave of the global Occupy Movement.
In recent years, a wide range of social movements
have networked through social media like
Facebook and Twitter all over the world (Sorour
& Dey, 2014). Those movements have also been
characterized by colors. The visual representation
of a social movement and its spread through
social media has also been observed in the
Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong in 2014.
Images of protesters who raised umbrellas to
protect their eyes from tear gas have been widely
circulated on social media and have become the
symbol of the movement (Chimbelu, 2014).
Contemporary social movements have become
networked movements by adopting social media
and visual images as means of communication
with activists and citizens.
A New, yet Traditional, Social Movement
Many scholarly reports covered stories about
protesters spreading issues, recruiting supporters,
and forming virtual public spheres by using social
network sites (e.g., Gaby & Caren, 2012). As
Juris (2012) points out, online media in recent
social movements have become an important
means of diffusing issues effectively. While
network-based forms of social movements have
existed since the 1970s, digital technologies have
dramatically widened the scope of the networks
(Juris, 2012). Therefore, the Occupy Movement
can be called a new digitally networked
movement; digital networking was critical in
shaping the nonhierarchical as well as
nonstructural nature of the movement.
On the other hand, as indicated in the findings, a
number of design concepts and components of
profile images used by local Occupy groups on
Facebook were still grounded in symbolic
meanings that had long been shared in the history
of social movements. A majority of the profile
images were composed with at least one design
component symbolizing social activism, such as a
clenched fist, images of protesters, or the use of
red and black. Those components were usually
centrally located on the images and created the
overall tone of the visual images.
There are two possible interpretations of the uses
of traditional images. First, these components
might have been used strategically by local
groups. The traditional concepts and components
of profile images as semiotic signs easily make
intense impressions by relying on historically
structured meanings of social movements. By
positioning their movement as an extension of
historical social movements and using wellknown
image components, local Occupy groups
more effectively drew people’s attention. The
majority of local Occupy groups also displayed
profile images stressing Occupy with red or black,
two conventional colors of social movements.
The combination of the title text and the
conventional colors signified the symbolic tie
between the Occupy Movement and a long
history of radical social movements. Second, the
repeated uses of symbolic images of social
movements supported the argument that the
Occupy Movement was grounded in a collection
of leftist ideologies resisting the power structures
of the world market (Ossewaarde, 2012). The
Occupy Movement was an extension of
antiglobalization movements (Klein, 2012) and
continuously expressed the message of the
“non-democratic character of global capitalist
forms” (Ossewaarde, 2012, p. 11). An image like
a clenched fist in a profile image, therefore, could
be an important sign reflecting this orientation.
That is to say, traditional signs of social
movements used in the Occupy Movement
helped protesters place their movement in the
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication Quarterly Volume 22 July – September 2015184
historical context of left-leaning social
movements.
Concluding Remarks
The present study quantitatively found that the
texts Occupy and 99%, local images, images of
protesters, and red and black colors were popular
components in local Occupy groups’ Facebook
profile images. While each component denoted
as well as connoted a certain orientation of the
Occupy Movement, the deliberate combination
of different components in images represented
the multifaceted characteristics of the movement.
Contextually analyzing such text, image, and
color components and their compositions, the
present study suggest that local Occupy groups’
Facebook profile images could be important cues
that reveal salient characteristics of the Occupy
Movement: that it was a local, yet networked,
movement and a new, yet traditional, social
movement.
Many local Occupy groups identified the
movement as a locally based social movement by
using various components representing locality.
At the same time, many of them placed their
movement in the larger network of the Occupy
Movement by sharing text, image, and color
components with other local Occupy groups as
well as Occupy Together, a symbolic center of the
Occupy Movement. While local Occupy groups
actively adopted Facebook as a platform of their
networked movements, many of them still relied
on conventional images of social movements in
representing their movement.
The Occupy Movement is not a past historical
event that is now well defined; many scholars,
activists, and journalists are still discussing the
causes, outcomes, and consequences of the
movement. Visual images used by various levels
of the Occupy Movement could be important
sources of information that support the
discussion of the movement because visual
images may both reflect and define realities.
Moreover, socioculturally contextualized
products are always subject to interpretation.
Although it is a tautological statement, the main
limitation of this study is that a visual interpretive
study cannot be free from the investigator’s
subjective eyes. However, this kind of visual
analysis becomes a good guideline for future
studies comprehensively covering perceptions and
consequences of visual images. According to
Rose (2012), “There are three sites at which the
meanings of an image are made: the site(s) of the
production of an image, the site of the image
itself, and the site(s) where it is seen by various
audiences” (p. 19). In order for this study to
develop the findings and discussions into more
theoretically meaningful arguments, it is
necessary to investigate the intentions of image
creators, the purposes of those who posted the
images, and the perceptions of viewers.
As mentioned several times throughout this
article, images and image components collected
in this study are widely distributed on the
Internet. Many of them were originally created
as either digital or wall posters of the Occupy
Movement. Also, Facebook was not the sole
outlet for Occupy Movement groups to
communicate with activists and citizens.
Therefore, a comprehensive visual analysis of
posters and image products created and shared by
Occupy activists may shed a brighter light on
visual representations and definitions of the
Occupy Movement.
References
Adams, J. (2002). Art in social movements: Shantytown
women’s protest in Pinochet’s Chile. Sociological Forum,
17(1), 21–56.
Anderson, K. (2011, December 14). The protester.
TIME Magazine. Retrieved from http://content.time.
com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745
_2102132_2102373,00.html
Barry, A. M. (1997). Visual intelligence: Perception, image,
and manipulation in visual communication. Albany, NY:
SUNY Press.
Barthes, R. (1977). Image, music, text. New York, NY:
Hill and Wang.
Benford, R. D. (1993). Frame disputes within the
nuclear disarmament movement. Social Forces, 71(3),
677–701.
Caren, N., & Gaby, S. (2011). Occupy online: Facebook
and the spread of Occupy Wall Street. Social Science
Research Network. Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/
abstract=1943168
Chaffee, L. G. (1993). Political protest and street art:
Popular tools for democratization in Hispanic countries.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Chimbelu, C. (2014, September 29). Hong Kong’s
“Umbrella Revolution” intensifies on social media.
Deutsche Welle. Retrieved from http://www.dw.de/
hong-kongs-umbrella-revolution-intensifies-on-social-
media/a-17961254
Cottle, S. (2011). Media and the Arab uprisings of
2011: Research notes. Journalism,12(5), 647–659.
Czaja, J. (2011, October 15). Occupy Together: First
day the whole world protested. Suit 101. Retrieved from
https://suite.io/jeanine-czaja/5rsp2wh
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication QuarterlyPages 185174–186
DeLuca, K. M. (2005). Image politics: The new rhetoric of
environmental activism. New York, NY: Routledge.
DeLuca, K. M., Lawson, S., & Sun, Y. (2012). Occupy
Wall Street on the public screens of social media: The
many framings of the birth of a protest movement.
Communication, Culture & Critique, 5(4), 483–509.
DeLuca, K. M., & Peeples, J. (2002). From public
sphere to public screen: Democracy, activism, and the
“violence” of Seattle. Critical Studies in Media
Communication, 19(2), 125–151.
Friedman, D., & McAdam, D. (1992). Collective
identity and activism: Networks choices and the life of
a social movement. In A. Morris & C. M. Mueller
(Eds.), Frontiers in social movement theory (pp. 156–73).
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Gaby, S., & Caren, N. (2012). Occupy online: How cute
old men and Malcolm X recruited 400,000 US users to
OWS on Facebook. Social Movement Studies: Journal of
Social, Cultural and Political Protest, 11, 367–374.
Goodman, J. D. (2012, April 16). Raised-fist salute has
varied meanings. The Led: New York Times. [Web log
post]. Retrieved from http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.
com/2012/04/16/raised-fist-salute-has-varied-
meanings/
Grasmuck, S., Martin, J., & Zhao, S. (2009). Ethnoracial
identity displays on Facebook. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 15, 158–188.
Ivcevic, Z., & Ambady, N. (2012). Personality
impressions from identity claims on Facebook.
Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1, 38–45.
Jackson, S., & Chen, P. (2012). Understanding occupy
in Australia. Journal of Australian Political Economy, 69,
5–28.
Jones, J. (2011, November 4). Occupy’s V for Vendetta
protest mask is a symbol of festive citizenship. The
Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.
com/commentisfree/2011/nov/04/occupy-movement-
guy-fawkes-mask
Juris, J. (2012). Reflections on #Occupy Everywhere:
Social media, public space, and emerging logics of
aggregation. American Ethnologist, 39(2), 259–279.
Klein, N. (2012). Occupy Wall Street: The most
important thing in the world now. Critical Quarterly, 54,
1–4.
Korff, G. (1993). History of symbols as social history.
International Review of Social History, 38, 105–125.
Kristeva, J. (1980). Desire in language: A semiotic approach
to literature and art. New York, NY: Columbia
University Press.
Mascaro, C., Novak, A., & Goggins, S. (2012). The
daily brew: The structural evolution of the Coffee Party
on Facebook during the 2010 United States midterm
election season. Journal of Information Technology and
Politics, 9, 234–253.
Ossewaarde, M. (2012). The crowd in the Occupy
movement. Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social
Theory, 13, 1–17.
Peirce, C. (1991). Peirce on signs: Writings on semiotic by
Charles Peirce. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North
Carolina Press.
Rose, G. (2012). Visual methodologies: An introduction to
researching with visual materials. London, UK: Sage.
Rule, N. O., & Ambady, N. (2008). The face of success:
Inferences from chief executive officers’ appearance
predict company profits. Psychological Science, 19,
109–111.
Sawer, M. (2007). Wearing your politics on your sleeve:
The role of political colours in social movements. Social
Movement Studies, 6(1), 39–56.
Schatzman, L., & Strauss, A. L. (1973). Field research:
Strategies for a natural sociology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Skinner, J. (2011). Social media and revolution: The
Arab Spring and the Occupy movement as seen
through three information studies paradigms. Sprouts:
Working Papers on Information Systems, 11(169). Retrieved
from http://sprouts.aisnet.org/11-169
Smucker, J. M. (2011, November 10). The tactic of
occupation and the movement of the 99 Percent.
Beyond the Choir. Retrieved from http://www.
beyondthechoir.org/diary/117/the-tactic-of-
occupation-the-movement-of-the-99
Sorour, M. K., & Dey, B. L. (2014). Energising the
political movements in developing countries: The role
of social media. Capital & Class, 38(3), 508–515.
Szasz, A. (1994). Ecopopulism: Toxic waste and the
movement for environmental justice. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press.
Tate, R. (2012, October 4). Facebook hits 1 billion
users, here’s how it hits $141 billion in value. Wired.
Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2012/10/
facebook-case-for-optimism/
Uitermark, J., & Nicholls, W. (2012). How local
networks shape a global movement: Comparing
Occupy in Amsterdam and Los Angeles. Social
Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and
Political Protest, 11, 259–301.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Semiotics and iconography. In
T. van Leewen & C. Jewitt (Eds.), Handbook of visual
analysis (pp. 92–118). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016
Visual Communication Quarterly Volume 22 July – September 2015186
Tae-Sik Kim is a lecturer and postdoctoral fellow in
the Department of Media Studies and Journalism at
Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. Email:
beinkid@mail.muni.cz
Waldram, H. (2011, October 14). Occupy Together:
How the global movement is spreading via social
media. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.
theguardian.com/news/blog/2011/oct/14/occupy-
england-protests-gather-momentum-via-facebook
Weinstein, A. (2011, October 7). “We Are the 99
Percent” creators revealed. Mother Jones. Retrieved from
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/10/
we-are-the-99-percent-creators
Wells, M. (2011, November 3). Occupy Oakland
general strike—as it happened. The Guardian. Retrieved
from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/
nov/02/occuply-oakland-general-strike-live
Woolley, J. K., Limperos, A. M., & Oliver, M. B.
(2010). The 2008 presidential election, 2.0: A content
analysis of user-generated political Facebook groups.
Mass Communication and Society, 13(5), 631–652.
Downloadedby[TaesikKim]at23:0606February2016