Thesis subject
Media-analysis solar energy
How is solar energy presented in regional media? What does this mean for the current societal debate about solar energy? And how may this debate influence public opinion? Under what conditions could solar energy systems be acceptable to the wide public?
The research will start with a short literature study on framing in order to choose and develop a relevant theoretical perspective. Next the research design for the media-analysis will be developed, including making a choice for the mass media to be analysed. The main part of the thesis will consist of reporting on the findings of the analysis.
Public acceptance and resistance of infrastructural energy projects
Infrastructural energy projects raise diverse responses from people living in the vicinity of systems that are planned or realised. Think of shalegas, muclear energy, urban solar systems and wind energy on land. You will do a literature review to answer the following questions:
- What are key theories to investigate public acceptance and resistance? What are commonalities and differences? Aim: to develop a conceptual model for investigating public acceptance. This model will be applied to select good empirical studies for answering the next questions.
- How are public acceptance and resistance of concrete projects explained? What is the state-of-the-art knowledge regarding the influential factors, and what knowledge is missing? Aim: to synthesize current knowledge and suggest topics for future research.