Online misinformation about climate change

Abstract

Policymakers, scholars, and practitioners have all called attention to the issue of misinformation in the climate change debate. But what is climate change misinformation, who is involved, how does it spread, why does it matter, and what can be done about it? Climate change misinformation is closely linked to climate change skepticism, denial, and contrarianism. A network of actors are involved in financing, producing, and amplifying misinformation. Once in the public domain, characteristics of online social networks, such as homophily, polarization, and echo chambers—characteristics also found in climate change debate—provide fertile ground for misinformation to spread. Underlying belief systems and social norms, as well as psychological heuristics such as confirmation bias, are further factors which contribute to the spread of misinformation. A variety of ways to understand and address misinformation, from a diversity of disciplines, are discussed. These include educational, technological, regulatory, and psychological‐based approaches. No single approach addresses all concerns about misinformation, and all have limitations, necessitating an interdisciplinary approach to tackle this multifaceted issue. Key research gaps include understanding the diffusion of climate change misinformation on social media, and examining whether misinformation extends to climate alarmism, as well as climate denial. This article explores the concepts of misinformation and disinformation and defines disinformation to be a subset of misinformation. A diversity of disciplinary and interdisciplinary literature is reviewed to fully interrogate the concept of misinformation—and within this, disinformation—particularly as it pertains to climate change. This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Communication

Tourism, technology and ICT: a critical review of affordances and concessions

“…Notably, misleading information is often targeted at specific audiences determined on the basis of algorithms using 'volunteered' consumer data (Sinclair 2016). It involves complex sets of techniques such as bots (automated user accounts to manipulate other users or algorithms), spamming (deceptive profiles in social network communities), astroturfing (coordination of large groups of platform users to spread specific content), contagion (spread of content through social media chains), algorithmic bias (spread of specific information that is not balanced in terms of its reporting), and outright fake news (fabricated information) (Treen, Williams & O'Neill, 2020). All of these forms of online misinformation tap into human interest to receive "newsworthy" information, also to create social capital (Phua et al, 2017).…”

Technology, ICT and tourism: from big data to the big picture

“…ICT innovations have simultaneously reduced society's ability to address problematic developments, as a result of changes in consumer cultures, online identities, and the undermining of governance structures (Zuboff, 2019). This is illustrated by the example of social media's role in questioning climate change (Treen et al, 2020) or voter manipulation through disinformation (Bradshaw & Howard, 2018). ICTs are deliberately and strategically used by corporations to advance specific agendas.…”

Three lessons conservation science can learn from the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…2020]), which is also problematic for environmental issues (e.g., climate‐change misinformation [Treen et al. 2020]). Fighting misinformation is actionable, and current efforts to tackle its spread (e.g., flagging content from bots and disinformation‐news sites [see https://osf.io/pt697/ and Yammine 2020]) can guide conservation scientists (Caulfield 2020).…”

“…Several COVID-19 communication strategies could be applied to conservation messages on social media platforms, like using slogans, hashtags (e.g., #flattenthecurve), and human-centered stories (Yammine 2020). COVID-19 emphasizes the risks of rapidly spreading misinformation online (i.e., infodemic [Cinelli et al 2020]), which is also problematic for environmental issues (e.g., climate-change misinformation [Treen et al 2020]). Fighting misinformation is actionable, and current efforts to tackle its spread (e.g., flagging content from bots and disinformation-news sites [see https://osf.io/pt697/ and Yammine 2020]) can guide conservation scientists (Caulfield 2020).…”