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Visualizing a crisis : the energy crisis co-constructed through memes

Thelander, Åsa LU orcid and Zhao, Hui LU (2023) European Communication Research and Education Association
Abstract (Swedish)
This study aims to increase the understanding of the role of visuals in crises by examining how citizens co-construct crisis through memes and how it enables certain ways of understanding the energy crisis. Knowledge about visuals in crisis communication is much needed to meet the challenge in “the post text”, where “an online culture in which text recedes to the background, and sounds and images become the universal language” (Manjoo, 2018).

The current global energy crisis is used as a case as the consequences of the crisis permeate many people’s everyday life. This study applies both content analysis and discourse analysis to most popular 100 memes disseminated on Twitter platform from 2021-2023. First, a quantitative content... (More)
This study aims to increase the understanding of the role of visuals in crises by examining how citizens co-construct crisis through memes and how it enables certain ways of understanding the energy crisis. Knowledge about visuals in crisis communication is much needed to meet the challenge in “the post text”, where “an online culture in which text recedes to the background, and sounds and images become the universal language” (Manjoo, 2018).

The current global energy crisis is used as a case as the consequences of the crisis permeate many people’s everyday life. This study applies both content analysis and discourse analysis to most popular 100 memes disseminated on Twitter platform from 2021-2023. First, a quantitative content analysis is conducted of the most popular memes to identify broad themes and visual representations. Second, a multimodal discourse analysis is employed to categorize sample memes, focusing on which aspects of the energy crisis are visualized and related to everyday life.

The insights of this study contribute crisis communication research in two ways: (1) Develop co-creational perspective in crisis communication by exploring how citizens utilize visual genre memes to construct their version of reality; (2) Advance the visual aspect of crisis communication. Visual theories and methods are used to explore the constructive feature of visuals such as the role of images in constructing crisis reality.
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Contribution to conference
publication status
published
subject
conference name
European Communication Research and Education Association
conference location
Gothenburg
conference dates
2023-10-05 - 2023-10-07
language
Swedish
LU publication?
yes
id
701d239f-826d-405e-80d7-6fb04d683f98
date added to LUP
2023-10-23 10:47:28
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:05:57
@misc{701d239f-826d-405e-80d7-6fb04d683f98,
  abstract     = {{This study aims to increase the understanding of the role of visuals in crises by examining how citizens co-construct crisis through memes and how it enables certain ways of understanding the energy crisis. Knowledge about visuals in crisis communication is much needed to meet the challenge in “the post text”, where “an online culture in which text recedes to the background, and sounds and images become the universal language” (Manjoo, 2018). <br/><br/>The current global energy crisis is used as a case as the consequences of the crisis permeate many people’s everyday life. This study applies both content analysis and discourse analysis to most popular 100 memes disseminated on Twitter platform from 2021-2023. First, a quantitative content analysis is conducted of the most popular memes to identify broad themes and visual representations. Second, a multimodal discourse analysis is employed to categorize sample memes, focusing on which aspects of the energy crisis are visualized and related to everyday life.<br/><br/>The insights of this study contribute crisis communication research in two ways: (1) Develop co-creational perspective in crisis communication by exploring how citizens utilize visual genre memes to construct their version of reality; (2) Advance the visual aspect of crisis communication. Visual theories and methods are used to explore the constructive feature of visuals such as the role of images in constructing crisis reality.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Thelander, Åsa and Zhao, Hui}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  month        = {{10}},
  title        = {{Visualizing a crisis : the energy crisis co-constructed through memes}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}