Stakeholder discourse coalitions and polarisation in the hen harrier conservation debate in news media

[摘要] 1. Conservation conflicts are complex and can be deep-rooted, with stakeholdersholding entrenched policy positions. The actors involved producing verbal interconnected interactions that form policy debates. Thus, conservation debates canbe viewed as network phenomena with stakeholders forming coalitions in support of, or opposition to, certain policies and practices.2. We used Discourse Network Analysis of print media to investigate the structureand dynamics of the stakeholder debate around the management of hen harriersCircus cyaneus, a bird of prey at the centre of a long-standing conservation conflict in the United Kingdom.3. We aimed to determine whether the structure of discourse coalitions changedamong the diverse aspects of the debate and whether the polarisation of thedebate has changed through time. Our search and selection criteria led to theanalysis of 737 statements within 131 newspaper articles published from August1993 to December 2019.4. We show that, while the discourse network of the overall debate is quite unstructured, actors formed divergent coalitions when defining the conservation problemand its solutions. In contrast, discourses converged around reactions with positiveor negative emotions in relation to events and issues of hen harrier conservation.Polarisation among actors has increased over time and peaked in the second half ofthe 2010s, concurrent with the release of the species recovery plan.5. Our study highlights the value of analysing discourse networks in conservationpolicy debates. Discourse networks reveal which aspects of any conservationproblem cause stakeholders to converge or diverge and can identify periods ofintensified debate that, ultimately, contribute to informing conflict mitigation andresolution processes.

[学科分类] 护理学

[关键词] conservation conflict;discourse coalitions;discourse network analysis;hen harrier;news media;polarisation;translocations