Picture This and Take That: Strategic Crisis Visuals and Visual Social Media (VSM) in Crisis Communication

Picture This and Take That: Strategic Crisis Visuals and Visual Social Media (VSM) in Crisis Communication

Abstract: Taking a content-form integrated approach to visuals in crisis communication, we argue that visuals play a dual-role in crisis information or crisis message design: Visuals can be both form and content.  In this presentation we review communication literature on visuals and their effects; identify types of visuals in crisis communication and how these types influence cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels; and propose how visual social media (VSM) (in both form and content) might shape or even revolutionize how organizations communicate with publics in times of crises.

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