Green Hydrogen in Poland: A Press Discourse Analysis (2016-2022) in the Context of Energy Justice

As the media are the main factor influencing public perceptions of the technology and shaping narratives about the benefits or risks of energy transition, the aim of this study is to analyse the “hydrogen energy” content in press in the context of just energy transition in Poland. This study is based on an analysis of the press discourse on hydrogen from 2016 to 2022, utilising Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies techniques to analyze large corpora of text. The dataset includes 1,896 articles (amounting to 1.75 million words) from Poland's leading press by circulation. Then, qualitative content analysis, mainly framing analysis, was used to describe the narratives.

The results show the dominance of one type of expert hydrogen narrative, and the media communication is primarily controlled by representatives of energy companies and businesses. At the same time, the voices of the academic community, local governments, and the third sector are marginal. Furthermore, the authority of science is often employed to mask the rhetorical strategies present in expert discourse.

We describe the emerging hydrogen narratives and show the relationship between the expertise for the field and the way it is communicated to lay people. The findings highlight the need for a critical reassessment of communication strategies and greater inclusion of diverse social groups in the energy transition dialogue to ensure equality, justice, and inclusion in the shift toward net-zero. The use of CADS methods and qualitative analysis allows us to thoroughly examine the role of language—particularly collocations and metaphors—in shaping public awareness of the energy transition.