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1Introduction211.4.3 Third aspect of meaning-making (sub-question 3): CirculationThe third aspect of the conceptual framework I develop is circulation. It is based on an approach to the study of visualisations’ meaning-making that attends to the process of meaning-making, to the meaning that changes in different contexts and over time. Circulation is a dynamic aspect that recognises the mobility of visualisations and potential changes. In Chapters 2 and 5, I identify three ways of circulating: within a platform, across platforms and across topical contexts.Visualisations, especially digital ones, are rarely used in one place; they can be used simultaneously by different accounts or actors and can be used independently on social media and different websites. They can also travel from one place to another (be it from the TV screen to a mobile phone screen or from a news website to a social networking platform) (Niederer, 2018; Rose, 2016). Although visualisations circulate, they can be studied as being connected. Visualisations can be connected (‘networked’), for example, by being used in conjunction with a hashtag (Niederer & Colombo, 2019, p. 43). This hashtag then indicates the topical context of the visual. However, the topical context should also be studied in more depth. Of course, the topical contexts within which a single visualisation is used can differ from its original topical context. For example, scientific visualisations such as graphs can be used in a non-scientific context, without the text that originally accompanied them, and can ‘serve various interest groups, trigger different associations and offer new perspectives’ (Schneider & Nocke, 2014, p. 17; see also Aiello & Parry, 2020, pp. 209–232). Additionally, circulating increases visualisations’ potential for visualisations to interact with (new) audiences (Rose, 2016, p. 288). These (new) audiences interact with visualisations by perceiving, interpreting, sometimes reworking and republishing them, which can reframe a policy topic and convey new meanings (Van Beek et al., 2020).Authors who appreciate visualisations’ circulation consider it an important aspect of their meaning and pay attention to changes in meaning over time in different ways. For example, Aiello and Parry (2020, pp. 209–232) note changes in meaning over time by tracing different contexts that specific visualisations are used within. Analysing the ways visualisations of a specific collection are used, Aiello and Parry compare these uses with the stated purpose of the collection creators and conclude about the ’lives’ of these visualisations, which expand beyond the platform where they were ‘born’. Similarly, Van Beek and colleagues (2020) study Efrat.indd 21 19-09-2023 09:47