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Visual and Textual Framing by Coalitions in a Policy Controversy974of food-choice hesitancy. In digital food cultures literature, visuals are indeed acknowledged as adding information to the story told in the text (de Solier, 2018), and both textual and visual digital content are considered as meaningful elements in people’s reflection on habits and preferences (Lupton, 2018, 2020) and also in the attempt to change those (the so-called “digital food activism”, Schneider et al., 2018). In visual framing literature, visuals are considered as powerful framing devices, equally important or even more important than text (Metze, 2018b; Rodriguez & Dimitrova, 2011). Hence, attending to the visual framing when investigating the expression of sentiments, online, facilitates an important extension of the knowledge about the ways sentiments are communicated. This knowledge can lead to insights on how the (online) public understands contested food-related issues and the (dynamic) public mood about them. Our results also show the benefits of manual sentiment analysis in combination with framing analysis. The two types of analyses together support the study of sentiments while applying a broad definition of sentiment, which entails noticing emotional expressions. Visual framing analysis, specifically, complements well manual sentiment analysis because visual framing is often considered as powerful particularly because of its emotional effect (Rodriguez & Dimitrova, 2011). This is even more true when the framed topic is controversial (Metze, 2018b).Through the study of the expressed sentiments about processed food and the framing of it on the internet – in so-called “food media” (Goodman et al., 2017), we shed light on the outcome of visual choices made by different actors, deliberately or not, when communicating a message. Food media plays a critical role in the dynamic process of producing food knowledge that in turn influences the understanding of the food system and the perception of specific foods as, for example, healthy or sustainable (Goodman et al., 2017). Therefore, a better understanding of those visual choices can contribute to the understanding of the way in which conflicting knowledges about processed food are spread and gain credit. For example, in our study, the fact that a “scientific” visual frame of “food classification” was used, most of all, in the negative coalition stands out against the fact that this coalition did not have a big share of academics and food technologist. This fact is interesting given visualizations’ capacity to affect the perceived credibility of online food information (Baker & Walsh, 2020). This is important especially since, in the digital environment, there is no longer distinguish between a sender and a Efrat.indd 97 19-09-2023 09:47