Cliquepolitik: Multimodal online discourse coalitions on CRISPR‐Cas genome editing technology

The influence of visualizations on decision‐making about controversial policy issues is increasingly recognized in the political and policy sciences. In this paper, we explore how combinations of visuals and text on Twitter (now X) lead to the formation of networks of actors sharing similar textual and visual framings about a policy issue in an online setting, which we conceptualize as Multimodal Online Discourse Coalitions (MODCs). MODCs struggle over the meaning of contested policy issues. We examine multiple MODCs in 2018 in the context of the regulatory decisions in that year about CRISPR‐Cas gene editing technology in the USA, Mercosur, and the EU. Based on an SNA and a qualitative visual and discursive analysis in three languages on Twitter in 2018 (covering in total ~ 427 k Tweets), we show that MODCs in English and Spanish focused on technocratic aspects of CRISPR‐Cas, resembling the regulatory decisions in the USA and Mercosur. In Europe, next to technocratic MODCs, an MODC in French formed around ethical/normative framings of the consequences of CRISPR‐Cas applications, using visuals of embryos to represent “GMO babies.” These visuals were emotional triggers in their framing of CRISPR technology. The ethical/normative framing reflected the argument brought to the CJEU by a group of French actors involved in the court case which categorized CRISPR‐Cas as a GMO technology in the EU. These results suggest that the French MODC and their visualization was of influence on the EU decision‐making process; however, more research is needed to verify the role of this online debate in the decision‐making process. 政治和政策科学研究越来越多的聚焦于可视化对争议性政策问题决策的影响。本文中，我们探究了推特(现在的X)上的视觉材料和文本组合如何导致行动者网络的形成，这些行动者在网络环境中就一个政策问题分享相似的文本框架和视觉框架，我们将这种行动者网络概念化为多模态网络话语联盟(Multimodal Online Discourse Coalitions,简称MODC)。MODC对争议性政策问题的含义进行了争辩。我们在2018年美国、南方共同市场和欧盟关于CRISPR‐Cas基因编辑技术的监管决策情境下研究了多个MODC。基于针对2018年推特的一项社会网络分析和一项包括三种语言的定性视觉及话语分析(总共覆盖约427,000条推文)，我们表明，英语和西班牙语的MODC聚焦于CRISPR‐Cas的技术官僚方面，这类似于美国和南方共同市场的监管决策。在欧洲，除了技术官僚MODC之外，还有一个法语的MODC，后者围绕CRISPR‐Cas应用后果的伦理/规范框架，并使用胚胎的视觉材料来代表“转基因婴儿”。这些视觉材料是其CRISPR技术框架的情感触发因素。伦理/规范框架反映了一群法国行动者向欧盟法院提出的论点，他们参与了“将CRISPR‐Cas归类为欧盟转基因技术”的法院案件。这些结果表明，法国MODC及其可视化对欧盟决策过程产生了影响；然而，需要更多的研究来验证这种网络辩论在决策过程中的作用。 La influencia de las visualizaciones en la toma de decisiones sobre políticas públicas controversiales es cada vez más reconocida en las ciencias políticas y de políticas públicas. En este artículo, exploramos cómo las combinaciones de imágenes y texto en Twitter (