Merging Duke Energy and Progress Energy: Online Public Discourse, Post-Fukushima Reactions, and the Absence of Environmental Communication

Abstract

This article examines online discourse in 2011 surrounding the proposed Duke Energy and Progress Energy merger in the Carolinas. It explores how issues pertaining to the merger, including constructing new nuclear plants, are discussed in media coverage and by citizens using social media. Overall, we find that the merger discourse focuses on economic concerns rather than the environmental concerns we had anticipated. However, post-Fukushima discourse appears to have become more inclusive of environmental concerns. We conclude that environmental discussions and efforts are likely to be globally informed andlocally situated, discussing the implications for environmental communication research exploring online discourses, specifically through social media. Future research must address how to locate and delineate constellations of locally situated discourse to provide a clearer picture of environmentally focused social media communication.

Keywords:

• Nuclear Energy
• Social Media
• Twitter
• Online Newspapers
• Environmental Communication
• North Carolina
• Fukushima

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank William Kinsella, Tudor Ionescu, and Darrin Durrant for their insightful and critical assistance on our manuscript.

Notes

1. Wu et al. (2011) report that the 10 most-followed Twitter users are celebrities rather than media organizations or other individuals.

2. Tweets are micro-blog posts of 140 characters or less posted on the website Twitter.com. Usernames are referenced on the site using an “@” symbol, e.g., @makautry and @ashleyrkelly are the usernames of the co-authors on Twitter.com.

3. As of March 2012.

4. Nuclear energy plays an important role in energy production in the Carolinas, as the second-largest electricity source, and accounts for about a third of the total energy production in North Carolina. In South Carolina, nuclear energy accounts for half of the state's electricity production (U.S. Energy Information Administration [USEIA], 2010).

5. The AP1000 is a “Generation III + ” pressurized water reactor with a nominal electric power output of 1,117 megawatts, and a mainstay of current proposals for nuclear expansion. For details, see http://www.westinghousenuclear.com/docs/AP1000_brochure.pdf.

6. The hearing took place March 15, 2011, at the Commission's offices in Raleigh, NC. Associated documents are available at http://ncuc.commerce.state.nc.us/

7. For example, when an earthquake struck the east coast of the United States on August 23, 2011, those close to the epicenter in Virginia tweeted about the event immediately. The tweets purportedly reached New York before the earthquake's seismic signal (Oswald, 2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meagan Kittle Autry

Meagan Kittle Autry is a PhD Student at North Carolina State University

Ashley R. Kelly

Ashley R. Kelly is a PhD Student at North Carolina State University