Energy narratives in Europe: Exploring the link between online news and renewable energy production

In this study we examine the relationship between news media importance of different energy-related themes (ERTs) and the level of electricity generation from renewable sources in seven high-income European countries. In an era of rapid technological progress and growing environmental awareness, the media plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion and influencing public action. Our analysis measures the semantic importance of key ERTs in European online news by examining over 260,000 articles published over seven years, from 2014 to 2023. To identify the potential causal effect of media attention to ERTs on renewable electricity generation, we adopt an instrumental variable (IV) approach that addresses potential endogeneity in media reporting. Using text mining methods to quantify ERTs media importance in the news, we find that increased media importance of different ERTs is associated with increased renewable electricity production in the subsequent months. This delayed effect suggests the existence of an optimal window in which media influence can effectively drive renewable energy adoption.