Shooting from the hip or taking careful aim? Developing the VISTA analytic framework comparing English and Scottish visual campaigns for self-protective behaviour throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

To address the dearth of research in visual pandemic communication, this paper proposes the VISTA framework drawing together research from visual communication, persuasion, crisis communication, and health communication to propose that effective health crisis response includes minimizing visual complexity, using strong iconography and symbolism, and effective text to accompany the visual material. The framework was applied to a cross-national comparison of the English and Scottish governments’ COVID-19 pandemic response on Twitter finding that the framework’s application provides good evidence to explain the substantially worse health outcomes across the pandemic in England compared to Scotland. The authors argue the three critical lessons learned from this analysis are that governmental pandemic communication must: (1) use clear visual branding for its pandemic response; (2) combine effective visual and text-based messaging; and (3) keep pandemic messaging positive.