Dirty Oil or Ethical Oil? Visual Rhetoric in Legitimation Struggles

The Use of Visuals in Issue Framing: Signifying Responsible Drinking

“…Visuals have also been identified as being exceptionally useful framing devices due to their ability to abstruse issues and appear overtly factual (Rodriguez & Dimitrova, 2011;Wischmann, 1987). Yet, the previous literature on framing in issue fields has primarily focused on verbal accounts, and thus far, only limited work has addressed the visual (but see Höllerer et al, 2013;Lefsrud et al, 2018). In addition, work on issue fields (Hoffman, 1999) has often addressed struggles and contestation (e.g.…”

“…Previous work that has empirically studied the role of visuals in institutionalization processes (e.g. Delmestri, Oberg and Drori, 2015;Höllerer et al, 2013;Lefsrud et al, 2018) has shown that visuals may be used to bridge ideational differences as well as in the translation of global contexts (Höllerer et al, 2013).…”

“…This suggests that visuals may also play an important role in issue framing. Work within this area is rare, but in a recent study, Lefsrud, Graves, & Phillips (2018) analyze a broad range of media ads created by different opponents in the contested issue fields around the Alberta oil sands. Their study shows how actors in the field combine visuals and verbal text in their legitimation struggles to promote or undermine the oil sands industry.…”

Social license to operate: Legitimacy by another name?

“…Another question regards the mechanisms underlying such processes. Here, it may be worthwhile to consider how visual and emotional appeals are particularly effective at capturing attention, re‐problematizing taken‐for‐granted understandings, allowing alternative interpretations of ambiguous texts, and creating openings for contestation (Jones et al ; Lefsrud, Graves and Phillips ; Meyer et al ; Voronov and Vince ). Indeed, challengers use visual rhetoric to create powerful images, for instance, of death and sanctity, which effectively critique a company's moral legitimacy and override any counter‐arguments of regulatory or pragmatic legitimacy.…”

Towards a Multimodal Model of Theorization Processes

“…We embrace a multimodal perspective that considers visuals not as mere illustrations of verbal discourse, but as potential unique carriers of meaning (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001;Lefsrud, Graves & Phillips, 2018;Meyer et al, 2013;Jancsary, Meyer, Höllerer & Boxenbaum, 2018). According to this stream of literature, visuals carry meaning in a different way than verbal texts do.…”