Philippe Blanchard

Abstract

The agenda has been studied in two complementary ways: one based on modeling, the other on sociology. Their combined use helps to understand the construction of the nuclear issue as a long-term public controversy and policy. To a quite stable policy lead by a cohesive policy community corresponds a long-term trend of positive public support, but punctuated with bursts of protest. To explain the upheavals of some publics’ support, the media coverage appears as a crucial factor, with its peaks of visibility, conflict-driven frames or news focused on the sector’s failures. The media did sometimes provide the conditions of a policy reversal. Two successive cycles of media coverage occur, both linked to a state of the local référentiel, embedded in the global one. Yet neither of them leads to a steady rejection of nuclear energy by the public, nor by the elite. Two agenda strategies face each other: contestants seek maximum visibility, defenders discretion and alternative framing. From the 1970s to the 1990s, both strategies change with diverse contexts: the decline of global ideological commitment, the professionnalization of ecological protest, the evolution of journalistic practices and political opportunities. But they only account for a part of the controversy process. Non strategic agendas also have to be dealt with. They are lead by dramatic events, crisis, non anticipated consequences of prepared achievements and non coordinated strategies that happen to converge.

Full text : PhD Dissertation