ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the implications of the ‘pictorial turn’ for Public Relations and strategic communication. It proposes a systematic framework for understanding how visual communication works. The theoretical framework will build on long-established scholarly traditions and expertise of numerous disciplines such as the language of art and film studies, nonverbal behaviour, semiotics, rhetoric and genre theory. In each of these categories more systematic corpus-based research specific to visual communication needs to be carried out in terms of identifying the individual components of these dimensions and how they work individually and in conjunction. The chapter provides an illustration of the potential power of a comprehensive and systematic understanding of visual meaning-making for public relations. It also focuses on core concepts of public relations, namely understanding stakeholders and communication. Understanding how visual language works in an age of all-pervasive image-making enables Public Relations to effectively manage perceptions and strategic relationships between organisations and stakeholders.
