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1Introduction111.1 The power of visualisations in policy controversiesVisualisations on the Internet and social media are increasingly influential in policy controversies (Hendriks et al., 2016; Niederer, 2018; Pearce et al., 2020; Rojas-Padilla et al., 2022). Policy controversies are the processes that arise when two or more persons or groups have incompatible objectives or understand an issue from competing framings (Dodge & Metze, 2017; Schön & Rein, 1994; Wolf & Dooren, 2021). The controversy over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is one example in which visualisations showing potential risks were prevalent in the online campaign and influenced decision-making and public opinion about GMOs (Clancy, 2017; Clancy & Clancy, 2016). Today, the successful visual campaign against GMOs is utilised in the CRISPR online debate, where visualisations are widely used to oppose CRISPR technology by portraying it as indistinguishable from genetically-modified organisms (Rojas-Padilla et al., 2022). Another illustrative example is the visualisation of flammable drinking water in the controversy over hydraulic fracturing for shale gas (‘fracking’). This visualisation, widely reproduced and shared online, was engraved in people’s minds as proof of the link between fracking technology and risk and has influenced public opinion and technology governance in the Netherlands (Metze, 2018b). Visualisations in these online controversies are not merely ‘condensed graphical elements depicting realities, knowledge, ideas, or messages’; they are also ‘capable of packaging cognitive, normative, and emotional information in non-necessarily verbal form’ (RojasPadilla et al., 2022, p. 105).Visualisations play diverse roles in policy controversies, as has been revealed in domains such as food (e.g., Baker & Walsh, 2020), energy (e.g., Devine-Wright, 2011; Metze, 2018) and the Syrian war and resulting refugee crisis (e.g., Geboers, 2019). A recent review shows that in the academic literature of policy and political sciences, visualisations are considered (1) sense-making devices, (2) strategic emotional triggers, (3) political meaning-makers, (4) icons conveying social norms and (5) portrayals of underlying values (Rojas-Padilla et al., 2022). Visualisations have been shown to influence the perception and memory of a policy problem, persuade the trustworthiness of particular facts and shape the way solutions to the policy problem are perceived (Bleiker, 2018; Metze, 2020; Schneider & Nocke, 2014). Within a policy controversy, visualisations can also help gain political traction for concepts and knowledge claims (Morseletto, 2017) or support a particular Efrat.indd 11 19-09-2023 09:47