Introduction

The discourse on shale gas in the Polish media actually began in early 2010 [the first two mentions were recorded in late 2009], and held a large amount of the media's attention until the end of 2014.1 The context of the subject's emergence and development in the media discourse is multifaceted, shaped especially by economic, political and geopolitical factors, but also by historical ones, including those associated with Poland's economic history, and cultural determinants - the sense of national identity, relations with Russia and the United States, but also with the earth and nature, with the traditions shaping the relationship with fossil fuels, ways of thinking about the environment, etc.

Debates on shale gas continued apace at a similar time outside of Poland too. In Germany and the United Kingdom, their scope is national, accompanied by numerous references to the countries’ energy policies. A generalised picture of the global discourse based on the media representations of the debates in these countries, as well as the USA and France, therefore seems relevant. Although they are outside the field of interest of many consumers, they serve as a point of reference for the framers of the discourses in the Polish media: politicians, journalists, business leaders and experts. These foreign discourses construct and reproduce both the success story of sorts observed in the USA, and the controversies on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technologies there and in Europe. Interesting analyses have been conducted on the public discourses in narrative topics related to energy policy in the United Kingdom (Cotton et al. 2014), the dynamic of the media discourse on this subject (Jaspal, Nerlich 2013), and attempts to reconstruct the controversies caused by shale gas in the USA and in the international discourse (Mazur2014).

Economic conditions

Gas does not occupy a prominent place in the energy use of Poles compared to other energy sources (particularly coal), at around 15% of final energy consumption (GUS 2015). The main consumer of gas in Poland is the industrial sector. Approx. 28% of the gas consumed comes from domestic production, and the remainder is imported, largely from Russia. Poland's dependence on Russian gas stretches back to the 1970s and is connected to the export strategy employed by the Soviet Union at the time.