Agenda building and topic modeling for analyzing environmental debates in the energy transition era: A case study in hard-rock mining

In the context of the effects of climate change and the growing activities of extractive industries on an international scale since the late 1990s, this research examines the discourses that emerge in print and digital media around copper mining and correlated issues. We focused on a specific case of environmental tension, an open-pit mine in Arizona, called Rosemont project. This study is guided by two related frameworks, the agenda building theory and the Stakeholder Theory. We analyzed, using Topic Modeling (LDA), a corpora composed of texts from different sources, including press articles published in the main local daily newspaper in Tucson area, website posts and the Twitter account of the interest group Save the Scenic Santa Rita, and a variety of documents from the Canadian mining company Hudbay. The analysis uncovers the ways tensions and decisions around new copper mines are discussed and made. Our study can show in general terms patterns in press coverage and in digital media in terms of issues and a network of stakeholders that may otherwise go unnoticed. These findings can speak to analyses of similar conflicts