Discourse Network Analysis of Twitter and Newspapers: Lessons Learned from the Nuclear Debate in the 2022 French Presidential Campaign

Abstract

The paper aims at giving an overview of the debate on nuclear energy in France during the last Presidential campaign (spring 2022) while offering a methodological contribution. It does so by employing Discourse Network Analysis to show which policy actors partake in the debate and how they are related at the discursive level. Statements have been collected from both Twitter and the newspapers about the role of nuclear energy in France’s energy mix, which has been a key element in the energy debate. Methodologically, a comparison of the discourse-actor networks emerging from the two methods of collection—Twitter and the newspapers—is provided. The results reveal the existence of two well-defined coalitions of pro- and anti-nuclear actors; few convergences between the two coalitions and minor differences between the two media concerning the actors in the pro-and anti-nuclear coalitions and the discourses. However, the network based on Twitter is more discursively rich and more populated by lower-ranking politicians compared to the network based on newspapers.