Beyond the Narrative Visualization of Infographics on European Issues

Abstract

The dynamic structure of infographics implies users’ interactivity and engagement. The ‘Debating Europe’ platform, launched in 2011 and focused on a ‘bottom-up’ approach, has been using infograhics in order “to illustrate key factors and to help explain complicated issues in an easily accessible way” (Debating Europe-Snapshot Report, 2014). Drawing on the infographics posted on the ‘Debating Europe’ platform, this study empirically explores the discourse-level of these visual images. We will consider infographics on European issues as visual-verbal texts that are socially constructed by the European Union to send its messages to EU citizens. Having social semiotics and appraisal theory as theoretical background, we will provide an insight into the potential navigation paths (information values, salience and framing) beyond these European infographics and into the use of the visual and verbal semiotic resources in the infographics on European issues.