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Visual and Textual Storylines by Coalitions in a Policy Controversy653the anti-frame –environmental/health risks. The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), a governmental actor, and the Council for Geoscience (CGS), a national science council, are members of the agnotological discourse coalition.The two actors use similar data visualizations: maps. Such maps have often been used in the shale gas controversy (Metze, 2018b) to communicate (seemingly) neutral information. These maps show the geological underground of the Karoo (see https://www.dmr.gov.za/mineral-policy-promotion/shale-gas20 and Figure 3.3(a)21). However, the CGS adds an area in light blue that represents suggestions about ‘sweet spots’,22 the best places for shale gas exploration.The two maps – one without and one with sweet spots – communicate two different visual storylines. According to the DMR’s map, data show that there are geological potentials for shale gas retrieval, with no indication of whether this indeed should be done. The CGS communicates, using the map, data relevant to a successful shale gas retrieval. Two actors belonging to the same discourse coalition use visualizations based on different knowledge bases, thereby leading to different visual storylines and potentially contributing to discourse coalition disintegration (see Figure 3.3(b)).The fact that the visualizations of the DMR and the CGS are allegedly the same, but actually relate to two ways of interpreting reality, echoes the ambiguity in the way the DMR is acting in the context of SA’s shale gas development. According to Atkinson (2018), the DMR is supposed to collaborate with local offices in the provinces but in reality, its approach is rather central. This vague stance might cause the DMR’s position within its discourse coalition to be indefinite and the coalition to be less coherent. Visualizations – this example shows – are an important indicator of this lack of coherence within a discourse coalition.20 For an archived copy of the webpage visit https://web.archive.org/web/20200614062027/http://www.dmr.gov.za/mineral-policy-promotion/shale-gas.21 See http://www.geoscience.org.za/index.php/key-projects/754-the-karoo-deep-drilling-project. For an archived copy of the webpage visit https://web.archive.org/web/20200820185037/https://www.geoscience.org.za/index.php/key-projects/754-the-karoo-deep-drilling-project.22 According to Schlumberger’s Oilfield Glossary, sweet spot is ‘a target location or area within a play or a reservoir that represents the best production or potential production [of shale gas]’ (https://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/en/Terms/s/sweet_spot.aspx, accessed 6 September 2019).Efrat.indd 65 19-09-2023 09:47