As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. But in today's always-on world, where we get our information and entertainment from a collection of image-driven, constantly scrolling social feeds, the power of the image has never been greater.
Last week, Queen Elizabeth II overtook her great-great-grandmother Victoria to become the longest-serving British monarch. As The Globe and Mail's Sarah Hampson wrote last week, even though Her Majesty the Queen has never granted an official interview, and we rarely hear her speak, she is "the world's most consistent, most revered, most world-renowned and yet most inscrutable celebrity."
Ms. Hampson also stated that we know her through images alone which allow her to represent "consistency in a turbulent world." Without saying anything, the quiet visage of Queen Elizabeth II is what makes her one of the most recognizable icons of our time.
It's clear that Her Majesty and those close to her understand what the image of the Queen means to the world, and how it can be used to maximum effect.
In the age of the social Web, we have daily access to millions of images, and increasingly our information consumption habits are determined by the images associated with that information. It's an old newspaper truism that stories that run beside a photo are more likely to be read than stories that run without a photo. Online, those truths continue to hold true. According to Twitter, tweets that contain a photo get 313 per cent more engagement that tweets that don't.
Images have the power to quickly evoke emotions and in many instances move people to act, often in ways that simple words could never accomplish. As Alfred Hermida, a University of British Columbia journalism professor recently stated, "there is a history in journalism of using the power of the photograph to bring attention to a crisis."
The world has been hearing about the refugee crisis sweeping through Europe for weeks, but it wasn't until the tragic image of the drowned Syrian boy was shared through millions of online outlets and social channels that the crisis really hit home and became a reality for many people.
In this world content is king, but visual content is bigger and more powerful. Images stand for something and tell a story that makes a lasting imprint. Authentic and compelling visuals are shareable. In the age of social media, the right image – a picture that is authentic, compelling and stands for something – can prompt a slew of responses, and spur action.
Indeed, in an age of seemingly infinite sources of information and rapidly shrinking attention spans, images have a greater power than ever to jolt us out of our own existence, causing us to sit up and pay attention to issues and events we might otherwise overlook or let scroll by in our feeds.