25 research outputs found
An iconic approach to representing climate change
In order to meet the UK Government's 60% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, there is a need for non-experts to be meaningfully engaged with the issue of climate change. This thesis investigates the value of engaging non-experts with climate change at the individual level. Research demonstrates that individuals perceive climate change as temporally and spatially remote, and not of personal concern. There are psychological, social and institutional barriers to meaningful engagement with climate change. More effective methods for engaging the public with climate change are needed which address the psychological barriers to change. An 'iconic' approach was developed to harness the emotive and visual power of climate icons with a rigorous scientific analysis of climate impacts under a different climate future. 'I~ons' are defined as tangible entities which will be impacted by climate change, considered worthy of respect by the viewer, and to which the viewer can relate to and feel empathyĂâĂ· for. Such icons already exist: for example, melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet or Thermohaline Circulation shutdown. However, these 'expert-led' icons have failed to engage non-experts. The selection of nonexpert icons enables individuals to engage with climate change through their personal perceptions and values. A robust sourcing for 'non-expert icons' was carried out using focus groups and online survey methodologies. A suite of icons representative of the reasoning behind individuals' non-expert icons was selected. Expert-led icons were identified from 'Sleeping 9iants' emerging from the Exeter Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change conference. Impact assessments were then carried out for the suite of expert-led and non-expert icons under a specified greenhouse gas emissions scenario and to an imaginable timescale. Methodologies used to investigate climate impacts on the icons included a survey of expert opinion, quantitative modelling and spatial analysis using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The cognitive and affective impact of the non-expert and expert-led icons upon individuals was investigated through an evaluative pre/post test workshop. The expert-led iconsĂâĂ· generally disengaged individuals. Expert-led icons had little personal impact and invoked emotions such as helplessness or boredom, and were considered too scientific or complex. Conversely, non-expert icons tended to impact upon the individual, the local area or nature; and invoked affective and cognitive engagement with climate change.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Public engagement with climate change: what do we know and where do we go from here?
Climate change is an issue with fundamental implications for societies and individuals. These implications range from our everyday choices about resource use and lifestyles, through how we adjust to an unprecedented rate of environmental change, to our role in debating and enacting accompanying social transitions. This article outlines the various ways in which members of society (âpublicsâ) may be engaged in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and then provides a synthesis of lessons about public engagement which span both theoretical and practical insights. These include the diverse drivers of, and barriers to, engagement; the importance of multiple forms of engagement and messages; and a critical need to evaluate and identify successful examples of engagement. We conclude by outlining priorities for future research, policy and practice
Sponsored messaging about climate change on Facebook: Actors, content, frames
Online communication about climate change is central to public discourse
around this contested issue. Facebook is a dominant social media platform known
to be a major source of information and online influence, yet discussion of
climate change on the platform has remained largely unstudied due to
difficulties in accessing data. This paper utilises Facebook's repository of
social/political ads to study how climate change is framed as an issue in
adverts placed by different actors. Sponsored content is a strategic investment
and presumably intended to be persuasive, so patterns of who pays for adverts
and how those adverts frame the issue can reveal large-scale trends in public
discourse. We show that most money spent on climate-related messaging is
targeted at users in the US, GB and CA. While the number of advert impressions
correlates with total spend by an actor, there is a secondary effect of unpaid
social sharing which can substantially affect the number of impressions per
dollar spent. Most spend in the US is by political actors, while environmental
non-governmental organisations dominate spend in GB. Analysis shows that
climate change solutions are well represented in GB, while climate change
impacts such as extreme weather events are strongly represented in the US and
CA. Different actor types frame the issue of climate change in different ways;
political actors position the issue as party political and a point of
difference between candidates, whereas environmental NGOs frame climate change
as the focus of collective action and social mobilisation. Overall, our study
provides a first empirical exploration of climate-related advertising on
Facebook. It shows the diversity of actors seeking to use Facebook as a
platform for their campaigns and how they utilise different topic frames to
persuade users to act.Comment: 44 pages, 9 figure
Using Semantic Similarity and Text Embedding to Measure the Social Media Echo of Strategic Communications
Online discourse covers a wide range of topics and many actors tailor their
content to impact online discussions through carefully crafted messages and
targeted campaigns. Yet the scale and diversity of online media content make it
difficult to evaluate the impact of a particular message. In this paper, we
present a new technique that leverages semantic similarity to quantify the
change in the discussion after a particular message has been published. We use
a set of press releases from environmental organisations and tweets from the
climate change debate to show that our novel approach reveals a heavy-tailed
distribution of response in online discourse to strategic communications.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Frame Analysis in Climate Change Communication: Approaches for Assessing Journalistsâ Minds, Online Communication and Media Portrayals
Framingâselecting certain aspects of a given issue and making them more salient in communication in order to âframeâ the issue in a specific wayâis a key concept in the study of communication. At the same time, it has been used very differently in scholarship, leading some to declare it a âfractured paradigm,â or an idea whose usefulness has expired. In studies of climate change communication, frame analyses have been used numerous times and in various ways, from formal framing approaches (e.g., episodic vs. thematic framing) to topical frames (both generic and issue-specific). Using methodological approaches of frame analysis from content analysis over discourse analysis and qualitative studies to experimental research, this research has brought valuable insights into media portrayals of climate change in different countries and their effects on audiencesâeven though it still has limitations that should be remedied in future research