Visually Framing Disasters: Humanitarian Aid Organizations’ Use of Visuals on Social Media

Lee, Sun Young; Lim, JungKyu Rhys; Shi, Duli

doi:10.1177/10776990221081046

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…When there is no strong social approval or disapproval, showing that many other people engage in the behavior may not be effective, unlike other behaviors with potential social stigma, such as smoking (e.g., Cialdini et al., 2006 ; Goldstein et al., 2007 ; Hallsworth et al., 2017 ). Additionally, individuals may not understand the numeric information in descriptive norm messages, which future studies can test with various decision aids (e.g., using independent event rates, visuals) (Dobson et al., 2018 ; Lee et al., 2022 ; Trevena et al., 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lastly, our studies modeled previous studies and government communication materials on Facebook for wording, visuals, and emojis. Future studies can examine the impacts of different visuals and emojis (e.g., Dobson et al., 2018 ; Lee et al., 2022 ), communication channels (e.g., Buntain & Lim, 2018 ; Liu et al., 2020 ; Olson et al., 2019 ), and during the pandemic (e.g., Botzen et al., 2022 ).…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are you prepared for the next storm? Developing social norms messages to motivate community members to perform disaster risk mitigation behaviors

2022

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Preparing for natural disasters and adapting to climate change can save lives. Yet, minimal research has examined how governments can motivate community members to prepare for disasters (e.g., purchasing flood insurance or installing water barriers in homes for floods and hurricanes). Instead, studies have focused on how to communicate actions individuals should take during disasters, rather than before disasters. This study develops messages targeting social norms, which are promising approaches to motivate community members to adopt disaster risk preparedness and mitigation behaviors. Specifically, we developed a variety of messages integrating descriptive norms (i.e., what others do), injunctive norms (i.e., what others believe should be done), and a social norms‐based fear appeal, or social disapproval rationale (i.e., a negative social result of [not] taking behaviors). Then, we tested these messages through two between‐subject factorial online experiments in flood‐ and hurricane‐prone U.S. states with adult samples (N = 2,286). In experiment 1 (i.e., purchasing flood insurance), the injunctive norms message using weather forecasters and the social disapproval rationale message significantly increased social norms perceptions, which in turn influenced behavioral intentions. In experiment 2 (i.e., installing water barriers), the injunctive norms message using weather forecasters, the injunctive norms message using neighbors, and the social disapproval rationale message significantly increased social norms perceptions, which in turn influenced mitigation intentions. However, the descriptive social norms message was not effective in increasing social norms perceptions. We provide some of the first empirical evidence on how organizations’ risk communication can empower community members to prepare and mitigate the impact of disasters.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are you prepared for the next storm? Developing social norms messages to motivate community members to perform disaster risk mitigation behaviors

2022

Self Cite

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“…This does not exclude conflict in Africa (as seen in Mellese & Müller, 2012;Zeng & Akinro, 2013;Hellmann, 2020); however, other types of events or entities lack body of knowledge (Coleman, 2010). More recently visual framing has also been applied to research a wider range of topics, for instance female circumcision and genital cosmetic surgery (Bader, 2019), mask wearing during the Covid-19 pandemic (Batova, 2020) and natural disaster-related social media messages (Lee, Lim & Shi, 2022).…”

Section: Visual Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual variations of violence – The metonymic framing of violence in the featured images of online news about Africa

Nagy-Béni

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As early as 2009, Forceville pointed out that the examination of non-verbal metonymies is more suitable for revealing their inherent power and nuanced, unnoticed effects than the analysis of their verbal counterparts. Although the ubiquity of (verbal) metonymy logically implies the frequent occurrence of nonverbal manifestations, visual metonymies have so far been pushed into the background behind verbal counterparts (Benczes, 2019). This does not mean that there is no discourse on visual metonymies at all, in fact this discourse is becoming more and more active. One of the most productive “sites” of visual metonymies is the world of advertising (see Qui, 2013; Pérez-Sobrino, 2016; Kashanizadeh & Forceville, 2020; Chatti, 2022; Hidalgo-Downing & O’Dowd, 2023). Others have identified visual metonymies in children’s books (Guijarro, 2019; Puspitasari, 2022) and in political campaigns (Goehring, Renegar & Puhl, 2017; Benczes, 2019; Tasić & Stamenković, 2022). The puzzle is more about the exact steps along which visual metonymies can be identified, because authors do not offer details about the process and aspects of analysis and identification. The dissertation specifically focuses on the rhetorical function of visual metonymies, namely the fact that they highlight certain features of a given phenomenon, while relegating others to the background. This characteristic makes metonymy an effective framing device. Although the mentioned studies all imply that visual metonymies are effective framing tools, visual metonymic framing has not yet been defined. The thesis reflects on both the theoretical (i.e., lack of definition) and methodological (i.e., lack of analytical framework) shortcoming by examining the potential inherent in visual metonymic framing in the light of the news genre, more specifically, violent news about Africa. To account for the research niche, an analytical framework, examining the substitutions through which violence is depicted in online news via detecting the metonymic relations of the Action ICM and the metonymies of the Complex event ICM, was set up. The model was validated on a sample of 289 units of analysis. The sample, including articles from BBC Africa and CNN Africa in the period 2011-2020, was compiled in a semi-automated manner. First of all, the results revealed that the INITIAL SUBEVENT FOR COMPLEX EVENT and FINAL SUBEVENT FOR COMPLEX EVENT metonymies greatly outweigh the CENTRAL SUBEVENT FOR COMPLEX EVENT metonymy, thus supporting the related hypothesis. Second of all, the obtained results highlight that the AGENT FOR ACTION and PATIENT FOR ACTION metonymic relationships are responsible for more than half of all the metonymic relations detected in the images. Although the proportion of RESULT FOR ACTION and INSTRUMENT FOR ACTION relationships in themselves is not negligible, overall, an anthropocentric result (driven by AGENT FOR ACTION and PATIENT FOR ACTION) emerged. This finding also supports the related hypothesis. Based on the findings, it can be said that the visual representation of violence in online news is a very fertile ground for the analysis of metonymic framing, since the display of violence is limited in several aspects, so news portals are forced to depict the events through substitutions. The analysed sample suggests that the majority of the substitutions strive to humanize the events, giving way to the emotional involvement of the readers (via the HUMAN OVER NON HUMAN principle and the news value of personification and impact). The thesis provides new results in terms of theory and methodology as well. The following points summarize the novelties explored in this research. • Introduction of a novel definition of visual metonymic framing: despite the fact that scholars agree that (visual) frames are often mediated by figurative language types, such as metaphors and metonymies in texts that offer a particular interpretation of events (among others, Burgers, Konijn & Steen, 2016; Charteris-Black, 2004; Catalano & Waugh, 2013; Catalano & Musolff, 2019), no definition has yet been offered as to what we mean by metonymic framing. This niche is even more evident in the literature on visual metonymies. The dissertation reflects on this deficiency by defining both metonymic framing and visual metonymic framing. • Development of a novel model for the visual metonymic framing of violence: although the discourse on visual metonymies is increasingly active, the puzzle is posed by the lack of clearly defined steps along which visual metonymies can be identified in news images. Focusing on violence as a timeless news value, the dissertation advances an analytical framework that lays the foundations for application of the Violence ICM (motivated by the Action ICM and Complex event ICM). • Identification of a novel metaphor-metonymy interaction in news images: the metaphor-metonymy interaction has so far been primarily investigated in advertisements, at least as far as the visual or multimodal scene is concerned (Pérez Sobrino, 2016; Kashanizadeh & Forceville, 2020). Although not the focus of the thesis, the identification and discussion of metaphor-metonymy interaction in the light of news images is a novel result. I trust that the method can be suitable for examining the visual representation of any violent act, given that the analytical framework is specific enough to identify the Violence ICM, but at the same time flexible enough to be extended to the interpretation of visual representations of violence universally. It is particularly important in the present day to examine through which interpretive frameworks the media portrays violent events, such as wars. Thus, the presented model, allowing for the investigation of the narratives (and their implications) that are prioritized by visual substitutions in online news, is highly relevant and novel. After all, violence, conflict and negative events have always been considered newsworthy, they have always represented news values, and this will certainly remain so in the future as well.

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When controversy meets controversy, what do you see? Understanding the visual communication of cannabis companies’ corporate social advocacy on Instagram

Dong,

Harrison,

Zheng

2024

Public Relations Review

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Visually Framing Disasters: Humanitarian Aid Organizations’ Use of Visuals on Social Media

Cited by 5 publications

References 52 publications

Are you prepared for the next storm? Developing social norms messages to motivate community members to perform disaster risk mitigation behaviors

Are you prepared for the next storm? Developing social norms messages to motivate community members to perform disaster risk mitigation behaviors

Visual variations of violence – The metonymic framing of violence in the featured images of online news about Africa

When controversy meets controversy, what do you see? Understanding the visual communication of cannabis companies’ corporate social advocacy on Instagram

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