A Two-Step Flow of Influence?

Abstract

In this article, we review concepts, measures, and strategies that can be applied to opinion-leader campaigns on climate change. These campaigns can be used to catalyze wider political engagement on the issue and to promote sustainable consumer choices and behaviors. From past research, we outline six relevant categories of self-designated opinion-leaders, detailing issues related to identification, recruitment, training, message development, and coordination. We additionally analyze as prominent initiatives Al Gore's The Climate Project and his more recent We campaign, which combines the recruitment of digital opinion-leaders with traditional media strategies. In evaluating digital opinion-leader campaigns, we conclude that there are likely to be significant trade-offs in comparison to face-to-face initiatives. The challenge for both scholars and practitioners is to understand under what conditions are digital opinion-leaders effective and in which ways can online interactions strengthen or build on real-world connections.

Our House Is Burning: Discrepancy in Climate Change vs. Biodiversity Coverage in the Media as Compared to Scientific Literature

“…However, doing outreach for scientists is generally considered as time-consuming and not enough rewarded in term of career advancement by research funding agencies. BD issues would largely benefit from engagement of a public figure that embrace the cause, as Al Gore did for the CC issue (Nisbet and Kotcher, 2009). …”

Visualizing the Paris Climate Talks on Twitter: Media and Climate Stakeholder Visual Social Media During COP21

“…News media are important ways that individuals learn about climate change (Brüggemann, 2017), at the same time that opinion leaders hold sway over public sentiment on climate issues (Nisbet & Kotcher, 2009). Social media apps and platforms are increasingly the hybrid media spaces (see Chadwick, 2017) where individuals are encountering news and information on a diverse range of topics, including climate issues.…”

“…Given that media are a way in which individuals often get information about climate change and that past research has shown climate change opinion leaders (e.g., former US Vice President Al Gore) play an influential role in opinion formation on climate issues, such as promoting pro-environmental behaviors through digital campaigning (see Nisbet & Kotcher, 2009), we chose to develop a sample which would allow us to compare visual framing across climate stakeholder categories during the climate talks. We built our sample of tweets for inclusion in this study around climate stakeholder categories, rather than hashtags or keywords, to study the relative prominence of posts about the climate summit, compared to non-COP21 or climate change posts, during the climate talks as a focusing event by these key actor types taking part in, or reporting on, the negotiations.…”

Are Australian wine consumers willing to pay for the expert service of wine retailers?

“…Wine consumers have been studied to use risk relievers such as: (1) opportunity to taste (Johnson & Bruwer, 2004;Mitchell & Greatorex, 1989), (2) personal recommendations (Nisbet & Kotcher, 2009), (3) free samples (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2006), (4) store reputation/ image (Lockshin & Kahrimanis, 1998;Semeijn, Van Riel, & Ambrosini, 2004;Slovic, 2000), (5) product knowledge and information search (Arbuthnot, Slama, & Sissler, 1993;Cox, 1967;Ward, 1996), (6) product/brand loyalty (Kerstetter & Cho, 2004;Lockshin & Spawton, 2001) and (7) product price (Benjamin & Podolny, 1999;Oczkowski, 1994). The application of these relievers is a function of the amount of knowledge (product and store) available to the consumers.…”