Do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysis
Abstract Identifying drivers of climate misinformation on social media is crucial to climate action. Misinformation comes in various forms; however, subtler strategies, such as emphasizing favorable interpretations of events or data or reframing conversations to fit preferred narratives, have receiv...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2023-12-01
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| Series: | npj Climate Action |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-023-00086-x |
| _version_ | 1797376726425141248 |
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| author | Ramit Debnath Danny Ebanks Kamiar Mohaddes Thomas Roulet R. Michael Alvarez |
| author_facet | Ramit Debnath Danny Ebanks Kamiar Mohaddes Thomas Roulet R. Michael Alvarez |
| author_sort | Ramit Debnath |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Identifying drivers of climate misinformation on social media is crucial to climate action. Misinformation comes in various forms; however, subtler strategies, such as emphasizing favorable interpretations of events or data or reframing conversations to fit preferred narratives, have received little attention. This data-driven paper examines online climate and sustainability communication behavior over 7 years (2014–2021) across three influential stakeholder groups consisting of eight fossil fuel firms (industry), 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and eight inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). We examine historical Twitter interaction data (n = 668,826) using machine learning-driven joint-sentiment topic modeling and vector autoregression to measure online interactions and influences amongst these groups. We report three key findings. First, we find that the stakeholders in our sample are responsive to one another online, especially over topics in their respective areas of domain expertise. Second, the industry is more likely to respond to IGOs’ and NGOs’ online messaging changes, especially regarding environmental justice and climate action topics. The fossil fuel industry is more likely to discuss public relations, advertising, and corporate sustainability topics. Third, we find that climate change-driven extreme weather events and stock market performance do not significantly affect the patterns of communication among these firms and organizations. In conclusion, we provide a data-driven foundation for understanding the influence of powerful stakeholder groups on shaping the online climate and sustainability information ecosystem around climate change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:43:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c8e8913f9ab1465595114fbe91af1cc8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2731-9814 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:43:49Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | npj Climate Action |
| spelling | doaj.art-c8e8913f9ab1465595114fbe91af1cc82023-12-24T12:32:25ZengNature Portfolionpj Climate Action2731-98142023-12-012111210.1038/s44168-023-00086-xDo fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysisRamit Debnath0Danny Ebanks1Kamiar Mohaddes2Thomas Roulet3R. Michael Alvarez4University of CambridgeCalifornia Institute of TechnologyUniversity of CambridgeUniversity of CambridgeCalifornia Institute of TechnologyAbstract Identifying drivers of climate misinformation on social media is crucial to climate action. Misinformation comes in various forms; however, subtler strategies, such as emphasizing favorable interpretations of events or data or reframing conversations to fit preferred narratives, have received little attention. This data-driven paper examines online climate and sustainability communication behavior over 7 years (2014–2021) across three influential stakeholder groups consisting of eight fossil fuel firms (industry), 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and eight inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). We examine historical Twitter interaction data (n = 668,826) using machine learning-driven joint-sentiment topic modeling and vector autoregression to measure online interactions and influences amongst these groups. We report three key findings. First, we find that the stakeholders in our sample are responsive to one another online, especially over topics in their respective areas of domain expertise. Second, the industry is more likely to respond to IGOs’ and NGOs’ online messaging changes, especially regarding environmental justice and climate action topics. The fossil fuel industry is more likely to discuss public relations, advertising, and corporate sustainability topics. Third, we find that climate change-driven extreme weather events and stock market performance do not significantly affect the patterns of communication among these firms and organizations. In conclusion, we provide a data-driven foundation for understanding the influence of powerful stakeholder groups on shaping the online climate and sustainability information ecosystem around climate change.https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-023-00086-x |
| spellingShingle | Ramit Debnath Danny Ebanks Kamiar Mohaddes Thomas Roulet R. Michael Alvarez Do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysis npj Climate Action |
| title | Do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysis |
| title_full | Do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysis |
| title_fullStr | Do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysis |
| title_short | Do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysis |
| title_sort | do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication a data driven analysis |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-023-00086-x |
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