Abstract
A strong online response has marked contention on shale gas from the outset, as campaign members link across borders to share information and inform themselves about the impacts of development. In this article, we apply a post-political lens to online activity in the English shale gas debate, to determine how this complex information ecology has shaped the dynamics of protest. Using shale gas development in Lancashire, North West England, as our case study we argue that the seismic events of 2011, in combination with the Government framing of public scepticism as a matter of information deficit led to an online information divide which constrained how effectively the dominant institutional actors could engage. Between 2011 and 2017, three challenges of online information: complexity, overload and loss of gatekeepers, served to perpetuate this division. Anti-shale gas campaigners were less constrained in their activity but the substantial burden of online activism contributed towards perceptions of disempowerment, as improved information access failed to deliver policy influence. The ultimate consequence was to contribute towards the turn to direct action. Applying a post-political analysis to online activity in information-intensive issues yields valuable insights into the varied ways in which internet use may influence the expression of dissent.
Highlights
Online contention has been a characteristic of debate over shale gas since almost the outset, and controversial [1] footage of flaming tap water from the documentary Gasland [2] has been credited with precipitating the opposition movement [3]
We reveal how the tortuous progress of shale gas development in England led to a phenomenon which we term an ‘online information divide’ whereby the dominant institutional actors were heavily constrained in their online activity, while anti-shale gas campaigners were not
This paper provides the first assessment of online information use in the English anti-shale gas campaign
Summary
Online contention has been a characteristic of debate over shale gas since almost the outset, and controversial [1] footage of flaming tap water from the documentary Gasland [2] has been credited with precipitating the opposition movement [3]. The internet has changed the ways in which protest movements operate and the context within which they operate, requiring them to navigate an information environment which is increasingly complex [7] This complexity must be negotiated by those in power and cannot be assumed to work to their benefit [8]. We explore these dynamics in more depth, considering their role in the development of contestation over shale gas in England, using the Fylde, Lancashire, as our case study
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