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Chapter 2502.7 ConclusionThis paper employed digital methods to map the visual elements involved in the online debate about shale gas exploration. We specifically investigated how actors used visuals to support their positions in the three different web spheres of Mexico, South Africa and the UK. We explored the role visuals play in depicting different sides of a sustainability controversy, and how it evolved.We found that the shale gas controversy overtime was visualised in similar ways, pointing to an established visual vernacular for this topic. Landscapes (natural and industrial), people (individual and groups), and data (text, infographics, maps, icons) were types of visual used equally in both years and with different intensities by different actors and country-related web spheres. South Africa’s actors used the highest number of images in the dataset, of which a considerable amount were landscape images. They also used research paper images in neutral and positive stances. The UK most neutral actors posted data visualisations from research papers. Mexican actors posted mostly photographs of people (proponents) and data visualisations of risks taken from research papers and maps (opponents).Differences found in the usage of these images when comparing views on the debate led to the presumption that the shifting on certain actors’ position over time, and consequently, the dominance of specific visual stances, can be explained by country specificities.Overall, our results illustrate the web as a field of governance dynamics. As digital objects, visuals play an essential part in sustainability controversies, public debate, and decision-making process.Efrat.indd 50 19-09-2023 09:47