Sustainability communication on social media in the last decade: A review of research perspectives from Asia

Abstract

The past decade has been marked by increased discussions on sustainability; some of the prominent accelerators being, mounting natural disasters, vocal climate activism, and the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The interest has crossed over from deliberations in global summits to grassroots-level communication. Additionally, the literature points to the increasing usage of social media in the communication of sustainability with an increase of interest in this area among Asian researchers. This paper aims to understand the direction of sustainability communication and the usage of social media in the communication of sustainability, in the last decade (2013-2023), from an Asian perspective – researchers and respondents from Asia. A comprehensive search of the literature by Asian researchers on sustainability communication on social media in the past decade was conducted using the Scopus database. The studies were clustered around common directions and terminologies, basis an in-depth content analysis. Based on the analysis, the study presents prominent themes and the current direction of research in sustainability communication on social media. The studies analyzed in the scoping review affirm that sustainability communication on social media in Asia has substantial potential to improve the environmental awareness of the public and promote actual pro-environmental behavior both in terms of green purchase as well as conservation behavior. The review provides a holistic view of the recent trends and possible future directions for sustainability communication on social media.