ABSTRACT Stakeholders debate issues of public interest in global online issue arenas, but political decision makers decide on these macro issues at national and supranational levels. A better understanding of the role of organizations in forming and monitoring such issue debates is necessary, given the influence of public affairs activities and media debates on politicians’ and public opinion. However, such a macro perspective is largely missing. This study analyzes the debate around the use of the pesticide glyphosate when the European Union decided on a license renewal in 2017. To uncover emerging salient topics and their relations with organizations, the online global coverage of the issue from the GDELT database (N = 1677) was analyzed using inductive automated content analysis (LDA topic modeling). Only three topics were salient in the arena, most prominently the carcinogenicity of glyphosate, thereby sidelining other relevant aspects. Furthermore, online issue arenas reach globally and are converged communicative spaces where a variety of media participate. Thus, the article develops and tests a typology of online news media for issue arena research. Advancing theory on organizations’ roles and strategies in these online issue arenas, a new classification of actors based on their visibility and communication strategy is proposed.

中文翻译：

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辩论草甘膦：使用归纳主题模型在战略传播在形成和监测全球问题领域中的作用的宏观观点

摘要利益相关者在全球在线问题舞台上讨论公共利益问题，但是政治决策者在国家和超国家层面上决定这些宏观问题。考虑到公共事务活动和媒体辩论对政客和舆论的影响，必须更好地了解组织在组织和监督此类问题辩论中的作用。但是，这种宏观观点在很大程度上缺失了。这项研究分析了欧盟在2017年决定续签许可证时有关使用草甘膦杀虫剂的争论。为揭示新兴的突出主题及其与组织的关系，请从GDELT数据库中在线关注该问题（N = 1677） ）使用归纳自动内容分析（LDA主题建模）进行了分析。在竞技场上只有三个主题很突出，最突出的是草甘膦的致癌性，从而掩盖了其他相关方面。此外，在线发行舞台遍及全球，是各种媒体参与的融合交流空间。因此，本文开发并测试了用于新闻领域研究的在线新闻媒体的类型。提出了有关组织在这些在线问题领域中的角色和策略的理论，提出了基于行为者的可见性和沟通策略的行为者新分类。