Analysis of climate change disinformation across types, agents and media platforms

Abstract

Disinformation represents one of the major obstacles to meaningful actions against climate change skepticism. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate climate change disinformation across types, agents, and media platforms as reported in selected online newspapers. A total of 124 news articles gathered from Malaysia's The Star and New Straits Times were subjected to content analysis. The articles were collected from the newspapers’ digital archives between August 2015 and October 2021 using “climate change” and “disinformation” as keywords. Subsequently, data were analyzed using the Chi-square test and descriptive statistics. The study found that disinformation about climate change is more likely to be spread by politicians, organizations, and anonymous agencies compared with business tycoons, celebrities, and academics. Also, misleading and fabricated contents represent the most common types of disinformation spread by politicians. The findings suggest that politics and social media represent the most critical factors influencing climate change. The study, therefore, calls for the joint efforts of activists, media practitioners, and governments to mitigate disinformation about climate change.

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