Climate change denial and ideology in Swedish online media: measuring ideology change using a computational approach

Abstract

In this article, we examine the ideological trajectories of Facebook groups discussing climate change issues in Sweden, with a particular focus on groups expressing climate change denial beliefs. Using textual data spanning nine years, we construct an ideological space through text embeddings and apply trajectory analysis to map the ideological movement of these groups, exploring potential radicalisation or polarisation in users’ beliefs. Our findings suggest that most groups spreading climate change denial views occupy a shared ideological space, but are positioned on the periphery rather than at the centre. Additionally, we identify several distinct clusters of actors with similar movement patterns, some of which shift towards positions where climate change scepticism or increased problematisation of climate change issues is more prevalent. Finally, we discuss ways to interpret the dimensions of the resulting ideological space.