Visible and Invisible... is an edited volume dedicated to the mechanisms of creation and functioning of media discourses on selected energy-related problems. The monograph attempts to diagnose the communicative dimension of the public sphere in terms of its operation as a space of deliberation, with particular consideration for mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion of social actors, topics and arguments.
The individual chapters result from research dating from the 1980s (archive studies) up until 2014. In the selected periods, diverse media forms and various channels of mass communication were analysed. This produced rich and differentiated materials that at the same time demonstrated the dynamic of changes based on consistent tracking of the fields of nuclear and wind energy and shale gas. These types of energy were chosen deliberately, instead of coal, the most obvious form in Poland. At the beginning of the research, these areas represented technologies that were (in their different ways) innovative. Nuclear energy is perhaps the hardest to define in this way (many actors treat it is a technology of the past), but previously it had not been implemented in Poland. In recent years, it is - again - being taken into serious consideration as a solution that can meet the demands of future energy policy, ensuring stability of energy supplies, reinforcing the country’s energy independence and favouring reduction of CO2 emissions. In this sense it is innovative for the Polish energy system.