“There are many different ways in which images are intentionally produced to have a specific impact. As their impact unfolds they become instrumental in a whole series of further events, both in the virtual and the physical world, that often go beyond the original intentions of their producers and sometimes even against them. It is in this sense that we understand the title of the book, Image Operations” (Eder and Klonk 2016, 4).

“Today’s conflicts are mediated: media amplify the volume, speed, reach and level of conflictual involvement, influence the representation, performance and development of events and are instrumental in the structure of power relations. They reduce, intensify or transform existing clashes and even generate new types of conflicts (Eskjær, Hjarvard and Mortensen 2015, 8-11). In short, they do not just reflect or represent conflicts but play performative and constitutive roles within them (Cottle 2006, 9)” (Eder and Klonk 2016, 4).

“[…] [I]mage operations aim at relatively strong, direct effects. The persons represented or addressed are to be affected in vital ways; their bodies or behaviours are to be changed. This is true for people hit by drone strikes, for suffering documented by activists and for hostages decapitated in order to produce terrifying videos. The sociocultural impact of such images can hardly be overestimated, and it confronts us with urgent political, ethical and aesthetic questions”  (Eder and Klonk 2016, 4-5).

“In the context of insurgency, violent images spread fear and provoke opponents. At the same time, however, they may be used to recruit future martyrs” (Eder and Klonk 2016, 5).

Still and moving images have potentials (possible characteristics) that may be grouped into 3 categories:

• 1- “[I]mages have mimetic potential: many images resemble in relevant ways the objects, persons, or events they represent. Their patterns of light, form, texture, colour and their spatial relations, in moving images also motion and sound, are analogous to things or perceptions in reality (Anderson 1996; Grodal 1997, 19-38). This potential makes the understanding of images - on a very basic level" (Eder and Klonk 2016, 9-10).
• 2- "[I]mages have symbolic potential: they compress large amounts of information”  - abstract information (Eder and Klonk 2016, 10). 
• 3- “[I]mages have specific aesthetic, sensual and affective potentials” (Eder and Klonk 2016, 10).
• "In contrast to verbal communication, which evokes mostly processes of imagination, images offer concrete perceptions, specific aesthetic forms and visible expressions that often operate as rather immediate, strong triggers of spectators’ affects and emotions. But they also contain intricate metaphorical forms anchored in bodily experience and complex emotional meanings and messages (Fahlenbrach 2010). These sensual and affective potentials are crucial for political images to make an impact on minds and memories, causing controversies and motivating spectators to move into action” (Eder and Klonk 2016, 10).
• "There is also the fourth potential of images: their operational dimension. It comes to the fore in their interactive use in digital media” (Eder and Klonk 2016, 10). For example: Computer simulations - "such images are changed by the users in real time, react to their actions, augment reality or simulate constant changes in the environment (Eder and Klonk 2016, 10)".