The Dash for Gas

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of extracting reserves of natural gas and oil from shale formations deep underground. This process, initially met with public support in the United Kingdom, has since become a highly contentious issue primarily debated between government, industry, and anti-fracking advocacy groups. Through the employment of three levels of agenda-building as a theoretical lens of examination (object, attribute, and network connections), this study investigated the political discourse between these stakeholder groups and national news media in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2014. In total, 1354 unique messages were coded, with 840 information subsidies and 514 news media content analyzed. To determine the short-, mid-, and long-term effects of agenda-building, a time-lag analysis was conducted. The results suggest solid support for all three levels of agenda-building. Our findings indicate that anti-fracking advocacy groups were more successful at influencing news media content across all three time periods, in addition to supporting the growing influence of digital information subsidies as an effective tool for agenda-building strategies. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.