The Colors of Ideology

E-Seminar by Gregory Paschalidis School of Journalism & Mass Communications, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece.

According to conventional metaphor, political ideology colors our ideas, attitudes, and actions, meaning that it affects or shapes them. Next to this phenomenon, commonly known as ‘ideological bias,’ we have the somewhat reverse phenomenon of the ‘color bias’ of modern political culture, i.e., the time-honored convention of color-coding the different political ideologies. Drawing from an ongoing book project, we investigate the semiotic logic that governs the color choices made by political parties and social movements to signify their diverse ideological visions and positions.