European Hellscape versus Polish Acradia: How Polish Parties Confederation and New Hope Weaponized the Fire of Notre Dame and “World War Z” in their 2024 EU Elections Campaign Material

Authors: Natalia Stanusch (AI Forensics; University of Amsterdam), Aleksy Szymkiewicz (Demgagog.pl)

Introduction

In the analysis of campaign material shared on social media platforms by official accounts of Konfederacja Wolność i Niepodległość and Nowa Nadzieja parties (from Poland), we uncovered that used footage includes clips from social media, news agencies, stock footage, as well as from the Hollywood production movie World War Z (2013, dir. Marc Forster), mixing reality with fiction and de-contextualizing materials to detach them from their original meaning. Aside from tracking the original sources and contexts of all clips used in the material in question, we analyzed the emerging narration as well as the formal and discursive strategies used. As a result, we describe the three main motifs on which this material is based: European Hellscape, the Enemy at the Border, and Polish Arcadia.

Research Questions

How is political content constructed before the EU elections?

Which of the topics are being pushed by the candidates and their political parties?

What are the aesthetics of the content promoted by the candidates?

Methodology

For our analysis, we used fact-checking as a basic method to verify digital material (in this case photos and videos) shared on social media as part of the European Parliament election campaign. Fact-checking is a method of verifying information using open, publicly available sources and tools to determine its factual accuracy. In our context, a data sprint like 'Verification', during which we tracked manipulation and content generated using artificial intelligence, involves verifying the original source and authenticity of digital photos and videos circulating online.

The first step was to find material that appeared to have been manipulated or generated using GenAI tools. Once we identified a specific piece of content (in this case a campaign video), we analysed it using various tools (InVID, Google Lens, manual assessment). Using the InVID tool, we extracted individual frames from the material. We then queried the Google Images search engine using the reverse image search method to identify the original sources and context of the materials used in the clip.

At the same time, this process allowed us to determine that the material used the technique of de-contextualisation. This involves the manipulation of content - the extraction of fragments of information from their original context (for example, fragments of zombie film scenes from the film World War Z are used as images to comment on the narrator's statements about migrants), resulting in a distortion of their meaning. This operation creates a false narrative that can influence the audience's perception and manipulate their views. In this case, the method was used to create a false and sensational image of the European and Polish migration issue (weaponised for political gain).

Findings

During our network monitoring, based on a previously prepared list containing links to the social media accounts of Polish political parties with candidates running in the European Parliament elections, we encountered an election ad for Tomasz Grabarczyk, a candidate from the Konfederacja Wolność i Niepodległość (Confederation Freedom and Independence) list. The material was shared on the profiles of the candidate, Konfederacja, and Nowa Nadzieja (New Hope) party, which is a member of the Konfederacja coalition. Both the coalition and the party hold Eurosceptic views.

The material was shared on both Facebook and X/Twitter, and in both uses it did not contain any disclaimers as to the sources of materials, neither within the material nor in the content description. While the film does contain a watermark labeling it as Kondereracja’s campaign material, no other remarks are included. It is a misleading omission given that our analysis of the footage revealed that clips from various contexts, shared across social media, news agencies, stock footage, as well as from the Hollywood production movie World War Z (2013, dir. Marc Forster) were used, mixing reality with fiction.

The material’s editing technique and aesthetics are based on montage and strong juxtaposition, both in sound and image. The opening clips, cut sharply and lasting only 2 seconds, come from three different recordings of the accidental fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral on 14 April 2019. However, the clips are overdubbed with a male voice screaming “Allahu Akbar.” Following a short amateur clip of a fire — perhaps mugging — on a street, the material cuts to a clip from World War Z (2013, dir. Marc Forster), showing a zombie hord crossing a wall. The voiceover, and large subtitles that occupy the central position of the frame, argue “millions of illegal immigrants…” Clips from World War Z are used twice more, accounting for a total of 8 seconds of screen time.

The very beginning of this material already reveals the underlying premise and message: an unstoppable wave of illegal immigration is setting Europe on fire. The visual and audio juxtapositions, and the subsequent positioning of clips originating from various sources and unrelated contexts, are put together in an attempt to create a narrative that portrays migrants as a threat, relaying on the old trope of ‘us’ versus the Other. As such, we can divide the material into three main sections: European Hellscape, the Enemy at the Border, and Polish Acradia.

First, Western Europe is depicted as a hellscape: clips that, in the narration, are introduced as referring to France, last 2-4 seconds, the footage is blurry and shaky. Almost all clips show dramatic movements; running migrants trying to climb on a truck or force their way through the border, people fighting, whereas most locations are on fire, mostly at night. The vidoes used are mostly recorded by passersby and amateurs, shared on social media, but also produced by news media. This ‘hellscape’ is intertwined with clips from World War Z, suggesting that a) migrants are like zombies and b) perhaps misleadingly leaving a space of interpretation for the viewers to mistakenly perceive these clips as depicting actual immigrants fording their way through streets and walls.

Migrants are portrayed as “forcing their way into Europe” by arriving on dinghies, rafts, and packets of chips, and then standing at the door of the Polish border. Before the European ‘hellscape’ is juxtaposed with Polish Acradia, the situation on the Polish border with Bialorus is depicted for almost 30 seconds of screen time. While the focus is now on Poland, the voiceover distances us from the reality depicted, emphasizing the wall and fences on the border which are attacked but not necessarily crossed (yet). While we do see footage of a man escaping from Polish soldiers (a clip which in fact shows a Polish politician attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to the migrants in 2021), the migrants — men attacking the fences — are ‘kept’ behind the fence, while Polish soldiers struggle and get hurt in the result. We see a smiling face of Putin, followed by a clip of by Ursula von der Leyen delivering a speech, again inviting a juxtaposition: are they both threads to Poland, or is Poland trapped between their plans?, the material seems to suggest. Up to this point, the voiceover is paired with dramatic music, as one would expect from an action film production.

In the third part of the material, the narration is clearly alluding to old motifs of ‘Arcadia,’ a dream of human utopia that marries tradition and nature. To reflect this, the soundtrack suddenly changed into soft, barely audible music, the clips last longer and are slowed down, the light is soft and pleasantly warm (golden hour), and the locations are those of green fields depicting Polish flags and children - symbols of innocence - but also military operations. The military operations are shot mostly with a bird’s eye view (allowing for a safe distance from any violence that could be executed), in good resolution, and slightly slowed down. With these formal tweaks, even the Polish military stands in as a symbol of safety, protection, and peace.

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This contribution was executed during the EU Parliamentary Election “VERIFICATHON” Workshop, 6th-7th June, 2024, Amsterdam / hybrid.

-- NataliaStanusch1 - 07 Jun 2024