Frame Analysis of the Issue of Hydraulic Fracturing and Shale Gas in UK Policy Documents and Parliamentary Debate, 2018

We analysed 1,557 UK policy documents. This included departmental documents (98), select committee reports (18), POST notes and Commons library briefings (57), written ministerial statements (52), UK general election manifestos (14), policy paper (46), major speeches (9), DECC blog posts (6), and passages of parliamentary debate (1,297). The analysis sought to identify key 'frames' used in the Westminster policy debate over shale development in the UK. Frames are, most simply, shared ways of thinking and talking about particular issues. We identified 9 such frames - 4 pro-shale development and 5 anti-shale development. The data therefore is comprised of every statement from across our corpus that expressed one of the 9 key policy frames. See Williams and Sovacool (2019) for a description of the 9 frames.