Visual Politics in the Age of Algorithms: A Four -Dimensional Model of Meaning, Visibility, Affect, and Legitimacy

Abstract This article develops a four -dimensional conceptual framework for analysing visual politics under conditions of algorithmic mediation. It argues that contemporary political images become politically consequential through the interaction of four dimensions that exceed representational analysis alone: constructive meaning -making, regimes of visibility, affective mobilisation, and the visual performance of legitimacy. By synthesising insights from visual culture, political aesthetics, and international relations, the article reframes visual politics as a discursive and infrastructural process shaped by hybrid human -machine assemblages. It further argues, drawing on a contemporary case of platform -circulated synthetic imagery, that algorithmic systems of circulation, ranking, and amplification may reconfigure each dimension, allowing visibility to operate as a provisional source of authority and accelerating affective and legitimacy effects beyond human deliberation. Through analyses of iconic photographs and a case of AI -generated misinformation, the article compares historical configurations of visual politics with a contemporary, platform -mediated episode to clarify how operative logics shift under algorithmic visibility. The framework offers a transferable analytical vocabulary for examining political imagery in platform--mediated environments and across diverse cultural contexts.