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Discussion and Conclusions1476from the text originally accompanying them. A visualisation is shown, in this thesis, as capable of circulating across platforms and topics and changing its meaning while circulating. As the text accompanying a visualisation is an important anchor in the decoding of its meaning, one can consider ‘securing’ the accompanying text to the visualisation by, for example, including it in the image file (as often done in memes and other visualisations on social media).In addition, visualising can be an opportunity to reflect on own perspectives. When choosing a visualisation to be used online, one can reflect on the meaning conveyed by this visualisation and on whether it corresponds to her or his ‘set of values, beliefs, and feelings’ (see Yanow, 2000, p. 10). That may lead to a consequent reflection on the own set of values, beliefs and feelings and their relation to the perspective on the controversial issue, along with a possible update of this perspective.6.5 Concluding remark‘See what I mean?’ is an idiom that is ‘used to ask if someone understands what you are trying to explain’ (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.). In this idiom, the physical action of the eyes is used in its broader sense to denote perceiving, understanding or comprehending. Similarly, this dissertation broadens the notion of visualising beyond the mere use of visual objects to incorporate the action of giving meaning by using visualisations. This broadened idea of visualisation is applied in the context of online policy controversies over energy and food technologies. However, it can also be applied to democratic life as a whole.Acknowledging the central role online visualisations play in policy controversies and other polemic situations, while being aware of their framing effect and the various ways they give meanings to events, issues, ideas or policies, makes visualisations too important to be left un(der)studied.Efrat.indd 147 19-09-2023 09:47