Page 87 - Demo

Visual and Textual Framing by Coalitions in a Policy Controversy854To summarize, online sentiment coalitions are networks of online actors tied together around a sentimental storyline about a particular issue. Online sentiment coalitions visually and textually frame an issue. Both the textual and visual framing can take place through the use of denotive or connotive signs.4.3 MethodTo answer the research question, we followed the steps visualized in Figure 4.1 and elaborated below.Online sentiment coalitionsWebpagesText VisualizationsTextual frames Sentiments Visual framesURLsGoogle queryGooglesearch-within-domainqueryThe textual and visual framingKeywordsOnline actorsData gathering Data analysisFigure 4.1. Visual of the steps used with the method applied.4.3.1 Data gatheringTo construct a dataset, we queried Google34 for pages in English containing the terms “processed food” and “food processing”, which were identified in preliminary 34 We opted for Google, the dominant web search engine, repurposed by Rogers (2019) as an epistemological machine for conducting social research, and we enclosed queries within double quotation marks (“unambiguous queries”, see, Rogers, 2019, pp. 32–22). To mitigate Google’s biases, we searched anonymously (logged out of any Google account), using a clean (no cash or cookies) instance of a web browser, with search settings changed from current region (that prioritizes city-level results) to national level.Efrat.indd 85 19-09-2023 09:47