The potential of microblogs for the study of public perceptions of climate change

Abstract

Microblogs are electronic platforms that convey brief communications posted by users. Keyword searches in popular microblogs, like Twitter, reveal fragments of users' knowledge of and views on issues like climate change. Evaluations of climate change communications in the microblogosphere are rare even compared with the few studies on the impacts of Web sites and blogs on users' perceptions of climate change. However, extant research focuses more often on appraising logic and evidence in microblog discourse than in discovering pathways of influence and impact. The limiting ‘frames’ imposed by strategic users of microblogs and the persuasive power of ‘influencers’ are often depicted as interfering with the open, egalitarian potential of microblogs, and also, as perpetrating bias and misinformation. But oversimplifying or biased framings and pronouncements by celebrities are the stock and trade of microblogs. Good or bad, they are part of a communication medium whose users plunge in to exchange views, to persuade, and to be persuaded. Tweets and posts on any number of issues are fodder for attitudinal analytics and predictive modelling. Tools of the analytical trade should be applied to climate change microblogging, too, considering the sheer number of people who post commentary on this topic, and considering the continuing need to better understand how people view and engage with climate change. This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change

Issue-Specific Engagement: How Facebook Contributes to Opinion Leadership and Efficacy on Energy and Climate Issues

“…Although scholars have recently begun to characterize the effects of certain forms of new media on public engagement with climate change, such as partisan news and political comedy (Feldman, Leiserowitz, & Maibach, 2011;Feldman, Maibach, RoserRenouf, & Leiserowitz, 2012;Hmielowski, Feldman, Myers, Leiserowitz, & Maibach, 2014), few studies have examined the role of social media in fostering engagement with climate and energy issues (Auer, Zhang, & Lee, 2014;Baym & Shah, 2011). Yet these social connections matter: Rolfe-Redding, Maibach, found that Republicans who reported greater levels of activity within their social network to reduce climate change also reported greater levels of belief in climate change and support for mitigation policies.…”

Network analysis reveals open forums and echo chambers in social media discussions of climate change

“…To date there has been little study of social media discourse or online social networks relating to the important and contentious topic of climate change (Schafer, 2012;Auer et al, 2014). Recent studies have looked at social media discussions around the September 2013 release of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (Pearce et al, 2014), at framing of the IPCC reports in legacy and social media (O'Neill et al, 2015), at interconnections between climate sceptic blogs (Sharman, 2014), and at the overall volume of activity and common topics of climate-related discussion worldwide (Kirilenko and Stepchenkova, 2014).…”

“…Such apparent uncertainty may weaken support for political action on strategies of mitigation or adaptation. While broadcast and print media presentation of climate-related issues plays an important role in shaping public opinion (Carvalho, 2010;Moser, 2010), understanding how climate change is presented and discussed online is rapidly becoming an area of central importance (Schafer, 2012;Auer et al, 2014). Social media are already an important locus for information exchange, debate, and opinion formation on a range of issues, including climate change.…”

“…Social media are already an important locus for information exchange, debate, and opinion formation on a range of issues, including climate change. The decentralised and participatory nature of online social media offers a novel opportunity to study previously inaccessible aspects of social interaction about climate change (Auer et al, 2014), including the social network structures that link individuals engaged in online debate and that are likely to affect how attitudes evolve over time.…”

As mudanças climáticas no Twitter: a ascendência da mídia e da política

“…A investigação sobre as mudanças climáticas nas redes sociais é recente e ainda limitada, apesar do potencial e do vasto campo de informação que as redes sociais proporcionam (O'Neill & Boykoff, 2011;Auer et al, 2014). Sabe-se que a realização de eventos internacionais, as agendas intergovernamentais, as publicações de lideranças políticas e/ou pessoas famosas e os eventos meteorológicos extremos proporcionam um aumento nas abordagens não só na mídia tradicional como também nas referências ao tema nas redes sociais (Kirilenko & Stepchenkova, 2014;Pearce et al, 2014;Cody et al, 2015).…”