Fracking and Framing: A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage of Hydraulic Fracturing in Canadian and US Newspapers

Olive, Andrea; Delshad, Ashlie B.

doi:10.1080/17524032.2016.1275734

Cited by 24 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…To trace how problem uncertainty was constructed over time in each province the study draws on thematic and content analysis of over 400 news articles. Media analysis is a useful technique in tracing changes in problem uncertainty over time because of the ability to isolate particular frames regarding fracking, as well as the actor, source, and date of each claim (Blair, Weible, Heikkila, & McCormack, 2015; Bronson, Dobson, & O'Doherty, 2019; Lodge & Matus, 2014; Olive, 2016; Olive & Delshad, 2017). The author and a research assistant developed a database of articles gathered using keyword searches of terms “hydraulic fracturing,” “fracking,” “unconventional gas,” or “shale gas.” The search yielded 220 articles from the Chronicle Herald in Nova Scotia and 218 articles from the Vancouver Sun , regional newspapers with the highest circulation in each province.…”

Section: Research Design and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem Uncertainty, Institutional Insularity, and Modes of Learning in Canadian Provincial Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation

Millar

2020

Review of Policy Research

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This study uses policy learning frameworks to explain variation in processes of hydraulic fracturing regulatory development in Canadian provinces. Using a cross-case comparison of British Columbia and Nova Scotia, the article demonstrates that differences in problem uncertainty and institutional insularity in each province determined modes of technical, social, and political learning in each province. In British Columbia elected officials framed LNG as a safe, clean energy source generating economic benefits. These frames made it difficult for anti-fracking advocates to increase the salience of environmental risks and scientific uncertainty. Low problem uncertainty and high institutional insularity fostered processes of technical learning within the BC Oil and Gas Commission focused on single-issue regulations. In Nova Scotia, an external review provided an ad hoc institutional venue through which environmental advocates, residents, and experts could increase the salience of scientific uncertainty and dread environmental risks. These conditions fostered collective processes of social learning among anti-fracking advocates and political learning among elected officials, resulting in a ban.

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Section: Research Design and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem Uncertainty, Institutional Insularity, and Modes of Learning in Canadian Provincial Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation

Millar

2020

Review of Policy Research

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“…In contrast, news depicting fracking as an "environmental concern" tend to focus on topics such as underground water contamination and its subsequent threat to public health. Driven by the wide circulation of strong anti-fracking sentiment in the documentary Gasland (Fox, 2010), water quality has become the most publicized environmental risk of fracking in both North America and Europe (Jaspal and Nerlich, 2014;Olive and Delshad, 2017;Buttny, 2019). As noted by Matthews and Hansen (2018), media coverage on fracking tend to present its economic and environmental perspectives as a dichotomy.…”

Section: Reporting Frackingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Debating Resource-Driven Development: A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage on the Pacific Northwest LNG Project in British Columbia

Chen

2020

Front. Commun.

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In Canada, the provincial government of British Columbia has been keen on building an export-oriented liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry since 2011. This paper examines media coverage of the Pacific NorthWest LNG project (PNW), which was considered as the flagship proposal leading the BC LNG development, until its abrupt cancellation in July 2017. The paper explores the differences between public, commercial, and independent media in energy reporting by tracing how six Canadian media outlets covered the rise and fall of PNW over a 36 month period. The comparative analysis reveals that when addressing the project's cancellation, fossil fuel advocates repeatedly deployed the "jobs killed by environmentalists" argument via opinion pieces appearing in commercial newspapers. This diagnosis, however, downplayed the far-reaching impacts of falling Asian LNG market conditions prior to the cancellation. By comparison, independent media played an important role in assisting LNG opponents to communicate PNW's fragile economic basis to a wide audience. Overall, these findings shed light upon the significance of independent media in supporting diverse news accounts of energy controversies.

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“…The complexity of fracking debates has also been highlighted in other studies (e.g., Dodge and Lee, 2017;Metze, 2017;Olive and Delshad, 2017;Buttny, 2019). Less scholarship, however, has explicitly analyzed how media coverage engages with the bridge fuel concept.…”

Section: Metaphors In Energy Communicationmentioning

confidence: 88%

A Bridge to Where? Tracing the Bridge Fuel Metaphor in the Canadian Media Sphere

Chen

2020

Front. Commun.

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This paper examines how Canadian media have discussed the role of natural gas in climate change mitigation from 2016 to 2019. It also explicates different stakeholders' varying stances on the environmental impacts of North America's ongoing “shale gas boom,” as manifested in their conflicting attitudes toward designating unconventional gas as a bridge to a low-carbon future. The data in question consist of 99 articles published by Canadian media sources, all of which included explicit references to either “bridge fuel” or “transition fuel.” Through a qualitative thematic analysis, I found that more than half of the articles adopted the conventional definition of bridge fuel. Meanwhile, there are three less common, yet noteworthy interpretations arising out of the rest of the articles, which conflict with each other in terms of their views on the relationship between unconventional gas and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Overall, the fact that bridge fuel references only appeared in a fraction of Canadian environmental and energy news reports during the target period suggests the issue's peripheral status in the Canadian media sphere. Given this situation, the paper ends by calling for more knowledge mobilization efforts to raise public awareness of the controversial factors underlying expanding unconventional gas production and consumption.

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Fracking and Framing: A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage of Hydraulic Fracturing in Canadian and US Newspapers

Cited by 24 publications

References 24 publications

Problem Uncertainty, Institutional Insularity, and Modes of Learning in Canadian Provincial Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation

Problem Uncertainty, Institutional Insularity, and Modes of Learning in Canadian Provincial Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation

Debating Resource-Driven Development: A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage on the Pacific Northwest LNG Project in British Columbia

A Bridge to Where? Tracing the Bridge Fuel Metaphor in the Canadian Media Sphere

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