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Discussion and Conclusions1416could last forever, but, “It is more a case of actions being made into scenes to generate images, which put a dazzlingly bright light on the perpetrator and attack his legitimacy with the public”’ (Wolfgang Sachs cited in Jordan, 2001, p. 21). In the above-mentioned study of the GMO controversy, the success of the anti-GMO campaign is attributed to online distributed visualisations, while acknowledging that these visualisations successfully responded to scientific arguments - visualisations were ‘able to refute rationalist discourses about the safety of GMOs’ (Clancy & Clancy, 2016, p. 279). This thesis suggests that patterns such as extensive use of data-related visualisations and repeatedly using the same content make the visual dimension of an online policy controversy an essential element in its dynamics not only as a response to any claims or events, but also in its own right.6.2.2 NarrativeThere are three conclusions about the role of narratives of online visualisations in policy controversies. First of all, I conclude that in policy controversies about contested technologies, online visualisations try to convince of a framing of a technology as posing risks or offering benefits by giving risks and benefits the meaning of being real. By making discursive risk and benefit-related narratives visible, visualisations make these risks and benefits tangible and hence easy to envision. Through the portrayal of concrete landscapes, real people protesting and maps or symbols of actual places, risks such as environmental risk and benefits such as economic benefit become concrete and easy to perceive as true.Second, visualisations in online policy controversies also try to convince of framing of a technology as either posing risks or offering benefits by encouraging to rethink these risks and benefits as embedded in routine activities and ordinary objects. By making these narratives visible, visualisations make these risks and benefits part of our daily life. By isolating everyday objects, focussing on everyday activities, using vivid colours or applying other visual techniques, and doing these things in combination with a particular textual message, casual activities (such as shopping for food) and familiar objects (such as a food plastic bag) are encouraged to be considered as involving risks such as health risk or offering benefits such as scientific progress.Third, the narratives constructed by visualisations add new information or focus, creating a layer of meaning more multifaceted and richer than the one Efrat.indd 141 19-09-2023 09:47