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The Meaning of Circulating Visualisations related to a Policy Controversy1215storylines. Although these storylines varied among URLs, usually, over time, one storyline was repeated in all URLs. Another observation is that the multiple storylines of a single URL together can communicate some complexity, for example about nano-sized plastic particles contained in food and drinking water and found in human organs, but much is unknown about their harmful effect (Table 5.6).5.5 DiscussionIn this section, we summarize our results (Table 5.7), put them in the wider perspective of our contribution to the literature, and specify the limitations of our study and our recommendations for further research.On Twitter (Table 5.7), within the boundaries of the nanotechnology-in-food topic, the distribution of the textual tones demonstrates that visualisations belonging to the most retweeted tweets circulate, on Twitter, mostly with text conveying a message with a particular sentiment towards nanotechnology in food. These findings are in line with previous research on policy issues on Twitter, in which tweets are considered strong framing devices (Stevens et al., 2018): given that tweets are effective in framing a topic, it is not surprising that most tweets with visualisations have either a positive or a negative textual tone.The tone analysis is complemented well by the analysis of image–text storylines when the aim is to reveal the meaning of a visualisation – storylines reveal a more nuanced message conveyed in the accompanying text, and this message can position the visualisation in a specific context that influences its meaning. In our analysis, we see that the image–text storylines varies when either positive, negative, or neutral message is conveyed (Table 5.7). For example, tweets with a positive tone narrated storylines of food security and food sustainability and also of benefit for the consumer. When analysing visualisations embedded in tweets, a storyline analysis is especially valuable in revealing the meaning as the storyline’s condensed nature (see Hajer, 2006, p. 69) makes it suitable for a platform with space limits such as Twitter.Efrat.indd 121 19-09-2023 09:47