Wizerunek energetyki wiatrowej i jej oddziaływania na społeczeństwo w świetle doniesień mediów regionalnych i lokalnych w Polsce

The development of onshore wind energy in Poland has been accompanied by controversy over the location of specific power plants. This issue has become a frequent topic in local/regional media. The purpose of this article is to determine how wind energy was portrayed in these media and, more importantly, what kinds of social impacts were the subject of media reports. The framework for the study is the concept of social impact assessment – SIA (Vanclay, 1999, 2002). The analysis covers the period 2010–2022. Articles for the analysis were obtained from online editions of the local/regional press from seven provinces in northern and central Poland, characterised by the highest level of wind energy development in 2020. A total of 321 articles were obtained from 19 titles of regional/local media. The research showed that wind energy was presented most often as a source of conflict around investment locations, and economic impacts were the most frequently described group of impacts. Two main portrayals of wind energy clashed in the regional/local media: a source of economic benefits for local communities on the one hand and a source of noise and health problems on the other. The debate on wind energy has varied over time. During the period when the anti-wind movement was most active in Poland, negative effects were most strongly emphasised in the media, while after the adoption of the Wind Power Investment Act, the debate on wind power almost quietened down and the share of articles presenting a positive image of wind power increased.