Seeking the high ground: Exploring advocacy groups' use of policy narratives in the legalization of same‐sex marriage in Taiwan

Abstract

AbstractAdvocacy groups employ narrative strategies and framing techniques to enhance societal support. However, to date, it remains unclear how the dynamics of narrative strategy evolve over time and what factors contribute to these shifts. To fill this research gap, we use the Narrative Policy Framework to analyze the competing advocacy groups' Facebook pages in Taiwan's same‐sex marriage debate from 2016 to 2019. The findings reveal that policy positions offer greater predictive power for the devil–angel shift, yet the utilization of conflict expansion and containment strategies is tied to policy issues, political events, and their intended target audience. Our findings also demonstrate that the phenomenon of policy narrative learning occurs when convergence of potential policy outcome is achieved. Furthermore, this study highlights the role of institutional mechanisms in advocacy through venue shopping, underscoring the contextual nature of advocacy groups' narrative strategies. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the utilization of narrative strategy in addressing a contentious social issue.