Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book focuses on how different kinds of technological inventions have created new types of visual events/images which have also led to new social, economic and political practices. It examines the functions that visual events and visual technologies fulfil. The book describes policy process, which is a set of related processes in which government tries to deal with a number of societal challenges needing political attention by developing and implementing a set of actions that try to handle these challenges. It presents three case studies which show how the production and distribution of visual events influences the agenda-setting process, which can be considered as the first phase within the so-called policy cycle. The book also presents three case studies, which deal with the policy formation process regarding the expansion of live stock diseases in Germany.