Water science in the public sphere: A narrative network analysis of fracking and oil spills in Colombian media

•Water-oil controversies in Colombia are transcending traditional political and ideological barriers.•Debates on fracking and oil spills are moving away from the environment-economy binary.•Debates emphasize irreducible uncertainty and complexity.•The terms are shifting towards new understandings of science and public expertise.•Narrative network analysis uncovers the structure of knowledge controversies. The looming global water crisis and waning dependence on fossil fuels have intensified the public discourse on oil and water rights, leading to conflicts over the water impacts of oil extraction and transport. This article assessed water-oil controversies that dominated media coverage in Colombia between 2017 and 2021. By drawing on discourse analysis, the assessment exposed how debates are shifting away from an economic-environmental binary, towards nuanced discussions surrounding complexity, uncertainty and the role of expert knowledge. A database of 388 newspaper articles was compiled to characterize the competing coalitions, storylines and discourse frames for each controversy and a subset (n = 168) were systematically coded. The relative prominence of discourse frames and links among them were quantified and visualized using network analysis methods. The findings presented a structural understanding of each coalition's narrative network, providing insights regarding the relative success of each within the public sphere. Environmental narratives in Colombia have transcended traditional political and ideological barriers by emphasizing issues of democracy, scientific uncertainty, and the precautionary principle, thus moving beyond unilateral economic and environmental debates.