Out of Sight, out of Mind? Controversy over Offshore Wind Energy in Norway's News Media

Abstract

News media are important reference points for public sense-making of emerging technology.In Norway, offshore wind can be considered an emerging technology. Siting renewable energy technology offshore is commonly regarded as a solution to onshore implementation problems, as development happens 'out of sight, out of mind' of the public. However, does moving renewable energy technology offshore really prevent controversy? How is emerging offshore wind technology made comprehensible in Norwegian news media? The dominance of supporting actors and arguments in the Norwegian news media discourse on offshore wind energy technology and the high prevalence of the argument that offshore wind should be noncontroversial due to its placement 'out of sight' suggest that the expectation that such technology will prevent controversy has been partly met. Still, the emerging technology has been accompanied by an evolving controversy, though with a different extent and focus than the controversy over onshore wind. Both supporting and opposing actors have made offshore wind energy technology comprehensible by employing economic, environmental and moral arguments. Economics has appeared as a privileged frame of interpretation used by both supporters and opponents. Environmental arguments have shifted their focus to biodiversity and global aspects such as sustainability and climate change, and lost their dominance relative to their role in onshore controversies.

News Media Framing of Grassroots Innovations in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden

“…The interest in GIs, community energy and various forms of decentralized energy ownership and production has increased in recent years. Literature is pointing to their potential for social innovation as well as contribution to the transition to a sustainable energy system (Bauwens et al, 2016;Berka & Creamer, 2018;Ornetzeder & Rohracher, 2013), increased policy recognition (EC, 2015;2016), as well as importance for energy democracy (Cozen et al, 2018). Taking the position that media reporting can have an impact on citizen attitude, it is of interest to see how these rather new forms of initiatives are being framed.…”

“…This means that the framing of the role of GIs in the transformation towards a society based upon RE matters for fully utilizing the potential for a transition towards decarbonization of the energy sector. Previous studies on energy frames within news media have been conducted on bioenergy, nuclear energy, climate change (Shehata & Hopmann, 2012), and wind energy (Heidenreich, 2016;Holstead et al, 2017;Stephens et al, 2009). These studies, according to Cozen et al (2018), have so far been concerned with contentious issues within specific RE sources, such as nuclear power, gas fracking or social activism.…”

Deep aspirations: towards a sustainable offshore Blue Economy

“…Slow progress is also due to our failure to gain knowledge and think strategically about cumulative and intergenerational impacts (Halpern et al 2019 ). The lack of societal concern is because the offshore is ‘out of sight and out of mind’ and, generally, there is poor reflection upon the values of offshore areas (Heidenreich 2016 ).…”

Without SLO BECCS, fast net-zero looks unlikely

“…With key elements of the SLO forming around dissemination of information and engagement with the public we explored the status of the public debate on BECCS in the news media. News is an important source of public information on energy technology [27] and performs a key role in agenda-setting and influencing public attitudes regarding new technologies [28][29][30]. Whilst policymakers and industry may seek to avoid controversy, news media has an incentive in actively engaging with the arguments of industry and government critics [31].…”

“…News media can also be used as a tool of persuasion by different actors, and has previously undermined the legitimacy and deployment of new energy technology [32]. How issues are framed, and the choice of narratives or storylines, are the means by which news media communicate and give meaning to the public [28][29][30][31]. Storylines are argued to be the most powerful discursive tool available by prominent political scientist Maarten Hajer, who states that they are a"generative sort of narrative that allows actors to draw upon various discursive categories to give meaning to specific physical or social phenomena" [33].…”