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Chapter 236in extreme poverty and hydraulic fracturing is seen as an opportunity to create jobs in the region (De Wit, 2011).In the UK, estimations of shale gas reserves were 1,329 trillion ft³, and the national government attempted to position itself as a pioneer of European, safe, sustainable shale gas exploration. Some studies identified coalitions on both sides of the controversy. Bomberg (2017b) pointed to the anti-shale coalitions as the most successful and dominant until 2017. More recent studies indicate that pro-shale framing has become prevalent in the policy debate. Most UK governments have supported shale development over the last years (Williams & Sovacool, 2019, 2020). Nonetheless, the authors also found a high level of antishale framings, which suggests an ongoing contest at formal national political sites. These anti-shale discourses are more focused on land use issues and impacts on the landscape, like the claims identified by Bomberg (2017b), and point more specifically to governance affairs.2.3 Digital methods for mapping visual aspects of online controversies‘Mapping controversies’ originates from Bruno Latour’s studies of scientific claims made to defend different perspectives, gain knowledge and engage in a public debate on science and technology themes (Latour, 1987). To map a controversy, we usually identify and track arguments and claims of expertise presented by opposing actors in a debate. It also allows understanding the complexity of the controversial object in the dispute (Latour, 2005).Since his first writings about controversies, Latour has highlighted the importance of the visuals in a debate. Images are mobile, presentable, readable, combinable, and embeddable in different settings and contexts. Therefore, they are strategic elements for arguing and convincing someone of a particular perspective (Latour, 1986). In online controversy mapping, visual content has been considered a key aspect due to its networked nature, matching the same logics as the web (Metze, 2018b; Niederer, 2018; Pearce et al., 2019).Efrat.indd 36 19-09-2023 09:47