Climate Change Communication and Misinformation on Social Media

Abstract

Climate Change has been described as the most pressing challenge we face. The rise of social media has changed the climate communication landscape, with characteristics of online social networks, such as homophily, polarization and echo chambers – characteristics also found in climate change debate – providing fertile ground for misinformation to spread.

This thesis presents a body of work centred on climate change communication on social media, with a particular focus on misinformation. The thesis comprises four separate but related papers.

The first paper, published in WIREs Climate Change in 2020, offers a comprehensive overview of the academic literature on online misinformation about climate change. It describes what climate misinformation is, who is involved, how it spreads, why it matters, and what can be done about it. Two key research gaps are identified: climate change discourse and misinformation on social media, and climate alarmist misinformation.

The second paper, published in Environmental Communications in 2022, addresses the first of these research gaps with an empirical analysis of the structure and content of climate change discourse on Reddit, seeking evidence of polarization, echo chambers, misinformation and skeptical discourse. Some evidence of polarization is found in the topics discussed and sources of information shared, however, some communities are more suggestive of deliberative debate. Little evidence is found for the presence of polarized echo chambers. An important conclusion from these findings is that platform architecture plays a key role in shaping climate debate online.

Addressing the second identified research gap, a multi-disciplinary group of experts including climate scientists, social scientists and communications experts was formed. Factors in the increase in attention of alarmist misinformation include the rise of social media, the rise of climate activism, and the increase in public awareness and debate about climate change. An agreed definition of climate alarmist misinformation was produced, and a number of negative impacts identified. The outputs of these discussions form the third paper in this thesis, in preparation for journal submission.

The fourth paper addresses both research gaps through an empirical examination of the prevalence of climate misinformation – in the form of contrarianism or alarmism – on YouTube, in preparation for journal submission. Overall, the findings suggest that viewing of climate change content on YouTube is affected by recommendation algorithms that may amplify pre-existing value positions, with important implications for public understanding and engagement with climate change.

In addition to these four papers, this thesis provides an addendum literature review to identify major new findings and trends in this research domain since the WIREs Climate Change publication in 2020. This highlights a number of priority areas for future research. Firstly, further study of climate change misinformation on social media, and the role played by platform architecture. Secondly, climate change misinformation on visual and audio-visual social media platforms. Thirdly, investigation of the trend for climate change misinformation to be part of wider conspiracy theories, and to be amplified by other conspiracy movements. Finally, the potential of ChatGPT and other AI tools both to spread, and to counter, misinformation.

In conclusion, whilst there have been many advances in our understanding of climate misinformation on social media, both through this body of work and the work of others in the field, there is still much more to do given the ongoing dual threats of misinformation and the climate emergency.