
Who with Whom in Biofuel Policy? Coalitions in the Media Discourse on Liquid Biofuels in Germany
Amongst renewable energies, the use of biomass for fuel production is certainly one of the most controversially discussed forms. Although biofuels have been criticized for years, the EU and its member states persistently support this alternative fuel. The politically-driven development of biofuels has, especially in Germany, grown very fast in the years 1995 to 2012. This study is interested in the discursive environment that contributed to this growth. By applying a media discourse analysis, we investigated the perception of biofuels, discourse coaltions, and why some actors managed to dominate the public debate on biofuels.
As our results show, biofuel supporters were most successful as
they found several advocates across different policy areas,
made use of the most significant frame within the debate, and
used a variety of arguments in a broad, but still incorporated set of frames.
Keywords: biofuel policy; discourse coalition; interest group; media discourse; media frame
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: January 1, 2018
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