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                                    Visual and Textual Storylines by Coalitions in a Policy Controversy713The impact of the visual technique of zooming out is twofold: first, it is showing more details about the subject (a well); second, it is informing the audience about the bigger picture, the broader context within which the subject is being used. Zooming out offers the viewer a particular viewing position and is a distinct and powerful visualizing technique (Rose, 2001, pp. 40–44). Through the use of this visual technique, differences between the discursive storylines of the two discourse coalitions are emphasized in the visual storyline; this may contribute to the polarization of the two discourse coalitions (see Figure 3.5(b)).Example 2: photographs in the Dutch controversyThe second example of discourse coalition polarization comes from the Dutch controversy. We examined two discourse coalitions with conflicting discursive storylines: business-as-usual and environmental risk. While the business-asusual coalition frames fracking as an economic opportunity, given the long Dutch experience of producing and relying on natural gas, the environmental risk coalition expresses concerns about the negative environmental impact of fracking, mainly based on academic reports and incidents (Metze, 2017).The actor Cuadrilla Resources, a gas company that received a local permit to test drilling for shale gas, belongs to the business-as-usual discourse coalition, which consists of mainly gas companies, national and local governmental actors, and experts (Metze, 2017, p. 42). The actor Schaliegasvrij Nederland (Shale GasFree Netherlands, an NGO that opposes fracking), belongs to the environmental risk discourse coalition which consists of mainly activists, politicians, and journalists (Metze, 2017, p. 43).Both actors use in their websites photographs of flames. Schaliegasvrij Nederland uses the well-known photograph of a flaming faucet from Gasland(see the second banner image of the website https://www.schaliegasvrij.nl32). This photograph goes beyond the simple depiction of what is photographed. It also communicates something intangible and experiential we cannot really see (see Mirzoeff, 1999, p. 5), namely the sensation of risk. It does so by depicting a particular image of flames: big yellow flames in a place where they do not belong. By contrast, Cuadrilla uses a photograph of a gas used for cooking and narrates a different storyline: one of a Dutch routine activity (see https://web.archive.org/web/20161109215926/http://www.cuadrillaresources.nl/boren-naar-schaliegas/film-gasland33). 32 For an archived copy of the webpage visit https://web.archive.org/web/20191203151433/https://www.schaliegasvrij.nl.33 Cuadrilla’s Dutch site (www.cuadrillaresources.nl) was accessed in December 2018. The site is no longer available.Efrat.indd 71 19-09-2023 09:47
                                
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