The implementation of energy communities represents a cross-disciplinary
phenomenon that has the potential to support the energy transition while
fostering citizens' participation throughout the energy system and their
exploitation of renewables. An important role is played by online information
sources in engaging people in this process and increasing their awareness of
associated benefits. In this view, this work analyses online news data on
energy communities to understand people's awareness and the media importance of
this topic. We use the Semantic Brand Score (SBS) indicator as an innovative
measure of semantic importance, combining social network analysis and text
mining methods. Results show different importance trends for energy communities
and other energy and society-related topics, also allowing the identification
of their connections. Our approach gives evidence to information gaps and
possible actions that could be taken to promote a low-carbon energy transition