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Communication dans un congrès Année : 2023

A sectoral public space? Controversies and public debate on Twitter about energy in France (2020-2022)

Résumé

Can we speak of a 'sectoral public space', i.e. a public space at the interface between confined spaces (Gilbert & Henry, 2012, Zittoun, 2013), sectoral forums (Fouilleux & Jobert, 2017) where actors and specialists of a public policy debate problems and solutions, and a general public space where public opinion is formed (Entman & Herbst ; 2001) ? A study on energy choices on Twitter (2021-2022; N = 500,000) - was conducted especially about communities involved in nuclear and climate issues. Communities’ detection is based on the principle of homophily, the tendency that people have to associate with people similar to themselves (Barberá, 2015). By relying on the graph of retweets and/or the graph of followers (Morales, 2021), it is possible to detect communities made up of people who “look alike” and share the same interests or the same opinions. This study has shown that viral diffusion phenomena are partly due to highly commented events (Fukushima anniversary, elections, etc.) and arouse strong collective emotions that (re)activate positions on sociologically and politically divisive energy choices (nuclear, RE, etc.) - these positions are largely aligned with partisan positions along the left-right axis. The same study, between 2020 and 2022, showed the existence of developments with a high information and argumentative content, sometimes spread over very long periods (via 'threads', threads of linked messages on the same theme). The same speakers, 'twittos', take part - to varying degrees, depending in particular on their level and field of expertise - in these different types of exchanges in a coordinated manner. They deploy different registers of discourse (from the mobilisation of affects and values to technical-scientific argumentation via the polemical register) according to two temporal regimes: an almost frenetic temporality, at the rapid tempo of current events (volatile events follow one another and lively exchanges of blows animate controversies with infra-daily or infra-weekly episodes), and a slower temporality dedicated to the development of 'in-depth' arguments on the theme of energy. This temporality, with a monthly rhythm, is partly decoupled from the events - but not from the polemics and controversies, notably through the notion of "debunkage". These dynamics of opinion, which intertwine arguments and collective emotions, find points of support, rebound and even amplification - as the example of the Gilets Jaunes (Filleule, 2020) clearly shows - in the digital world (Kaufmann, 2020), as well as in the 'real' world. The various local controversies and tensions over onshore wind power, linked to the multiplication of development projects, have been reformulated in partisan terms during the campaign for the regional elections in spring 2021: Right-wing and extreme right-wing parties put into political form what they perceived as a social demand emerging from the territories and made opposition to onshore wind power and 'green' values, in favour of nuclear power, a campaign issue, in the name of the territory's identity, of a 'us' assimilated to the defence of the landscape heritage. These mobilisation dynamics were fuelled and amplified, particularly at the national level, by the positions taken on Twitter, some of which were relayed by the media. In 2022, these same communities of twittos mobilised around controversies on nuclear energy during the presidential elections. It can be assumed that these positions contributed strongly to the dynamics of public opinion, which is also measured in general public opinion surveys (Brugidou and Bouillet, 2023).
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halshs-04281860, version 1 (13-11-2023)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-04281860 , version 1

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Mathieu Brugidou, Philippe Suignard. A sectoral public space? Controversies and public debate on Twitter about energy in France (2020-2022). WAPOR 76TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, World Association of Public Opinion Research, Sep 2023, SALZBURG, Austria. ⟨halshs-04281860⟩
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