During my research, I was particularly influenced by Foam Magazine’s Propaganda issue in representing the power of words and perception. In the magazine, Simon Menner’s Role Models collection juxtaposes images from ISIS propaganda videos with similarly composed Western media images; the parallels underline ISIS’s attempt to garner attention from the Western world.[1] As the group’s physical threat and influence are “vanishingly small” according to Menner, he exposes the group’s strategy of using perception as their strongest weapon, which he believes “has become the most important battlefield of the twenty-first century, and fear in the form of terror might be the predominant weapon.”[2] I immediately thought of Donald Trump and the absurdity of his words, which he publicizes constantly through Twitter to be scrutinized by the global media.
[1] Kim Knoppers, ‘Perception is a Battlefield’, Foam Magazine, 4 April 2017, p. 52.
[2] Kim Knoppers, ‘Perception is a Battlefield’, Foam Magazine, 4 April 2017, p. 52, 69.
Jessica Yang 