Climate change and how social media influences the movement - A Podcast
- Romanthi Fernando
- Dec 11, 2022
- 5 min read
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Climate change remains a looming humanity issue because of how complicated and unintegrated the actions are. In 2015, when the world leaders collectively adopted the Paris Climate Accord, it seemed the world was together in fighting the inevitable enemy facing our next generation: climate catastrophe. But, five years later, it looks like we are far from rounding the corner of the “zero Carbon emission” target.
Hi, my name is Romanthi and welcome to your favorite podcast channel jargon-nots - where we discuss the why’s and what’s of various aspects of digital marketing.
Today’s episode is about Climate change and how social media influences the movement
Glad to have you with me today.
So the question is, can we actually reverse the adverse climate changes?
A lot of people might still see climate change as an existential problem that needs gradual actions rather than drastic approaches.
Despite the lack of opportunities in the high seat of government to take measures gradual or drastic, the difference in the real world is that people can still speak their voice to protect mother earth.
One of the main ways to influence others is by social media.
The influence of social media is immensely huge today when many are relying on the internet to learn, gather information, entertain, and socialize.
Climate change on social media has thus become a point of interest, discussion and knowledge sharing.
Interactive content on climate change was widely seen over the last few years on social platforms like following an account, liking or commenting on posts, posting or sharing content about the need for action
With the rise of the creator economy and the growth of re populating content, climate change is one of the widely followed topics on social media.
Among U.S. social media users, 45% of Gen Z adults and 40% of Millennials have engaged with climate change related content in some way
By contrast, we see a much smaller shares of users in Gen X (27%) and Baby Boomer (21%) have interacted with climate change topics on social media users
But with all this awareness generation, can social media actually make an impact on world issues such as climate change? This got me thinking.
Greta Thunberg, is synonymous for climate change awareness among millennials. She had an ambitious goal of turning her country’s parliament stand on climate change by starting a student movement called “Fridays for future” in 2018. Later the campaign continued as the global climate strike in September 2019 participated by 6 million people in 150 countries. Her 4800 KM voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on a zero-emission yacht, and the speech titled “How dare you?” during the United Nations Climate Action Summit has inspired young people across the world. The year 2019 was definitely the time when the public finally woke up to climate change. This awakening of climate concern mostly by young people.
So how much awareness was built? Was this movement which was online and offline sufficient to build enough awareness in the world? The effect differed by Generation when it comes to positive emotional reactions: 54% of Gen Z and 53% of Millennial social media users say they felt motivated to learn more about climate change issues the last time they saw climate content on social platforms, compared with 43% of Gen X and 39% of Baby Boomer and older users.
As far as awareness, and generating interest goes for such a concerning and global topic such as climate change, being able to create more than 50% interest among a subsection of audiences is commendable. But what has it done in reversing the effects of climate change? In other words does social media awareness building have an effect on the real world?
(According to an article published by researchgate.net in July this year) for instance, the majority of #Instagram users who use the hashtag #climatechange are not engaging in dialogue but they are mostly one-sided mentions dominated by influencers.
These too are in the form of text comments that include pro-social or community-building posts, which tend to occur much more often for high-profile influential users than they do for community users.
According to some research specialists, (Jennifer Whyte, an online engagement and content specialist from Oceana) not all climate change campaigns have well-planned targets, and even turn out to benefit only the creator.
Even though a campaign is being promoted on social media to a big audience, it may not necessarily mean big actions.
This behavior of posting about an issue, but does little in implementing it. Is often derisively referred to as “slacktivism” (Morozov 2009; Sherer 2015; Boulton 2017).
Where It is characterized as “a sort of lazy form of activism that appears on social media in the form of likes, shares, or follows.
This is, however, an inevitable obstacle that activists attempting to use these technologies must overcome” (Sherer 2015).
What we should understand about social media is that it provides us with an opportunity to understand social, cultural, and environmental issues about people’s perception of sustainability across topics of international iterate.
According to research done in 2018 - 2019 using over 400k #Twitter accounts for key hashtags in the field of sustaiblaibily In connection to the community analysis , this represents the main hashtag in the Climate Change and Renewable Energy community.
The hashtag #climatechange had the strongest links with the hashtags #climate, #renewableenergy, and #globalwarming
The most interconnected topic with sustainability is area of innovation;
Could this mean that youngsters have already identified that climate change is possible if renewable energy sources are used or made more affordable through innovation? I guess we just have to wait and see..
On #Tiktok, #climatechange has over 3.8billion views. #globalwarming 1.6 billion views. With renewable energy around 200million views.
But now we are faced with a chicken and egg situation. What came first? Was social media activism that leads to climate change control? This got me curious. What I found out was interesting.
From 2013 to 2016, communication around low-carbon construction and energy efficiency influenced the online narrative. More significant interactions on net-zero transition, climate tech, circular economy, mass timber housing and climate justice in 2017–2021 shaped the online climate action discussions..
In this light if we look closer at the relationship between social media and climate change from a politics/policymaking angle, and how that may shape user opinion and reactions.
Social media and citizen journalism has increased the immediacy of breaking news. This seems to have influenced the acceleration of the speed at which politics is conducted and perceive
In summary, sometimes, seeking attention on social media benefits society at large. But what is required is for that attention to revolve around the socially important matter that can influence decision-makers so that our shared future will have better hope and prospects of growth.
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Okay folks that’s all I have for you today.
I hope you enjoyed today’s show, if you have any feedback, please make sure to write to me, on the email link provided here.
Sources of where I’ve gained inspiration and data are also in the links below.
Sources:
Social media and perceived climate change efficacy: A European comparison,(Tuitjer, L. Dirksmeier, P 2021)
Link: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S266637832100009X?token=0A3FCDFF88E9D55A4B611E7478EBE483C54B9F16F452F820814A08820383B8DCBE8E7982009C936C5E387A5FD6F0C138&originRegion=eu-west-1&originCreation=20221130230641
On social media, Gen Z and Millennial adults interact more with climate change content than older generations. Pew Research Center,(Lynne C , Tyson A, 2021)
Link: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/21/on-social-media-gen-z-and-millennial-adults-interact-more-with-climate-change-content-than-older-generations/
The #Instagram #climatechange Hashtag Community: Does It Impact Social Capital and Community Agency? International Journal of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies 12(3):17-35
Hodson J, Royal Roads University, Dale A, Royal Roads University 2018
The Power of Social Media to Fight Climate Change (Andrio B, Safrina R, 2021)
Link: https://accept.aseanenergy.org/the-power-of-social-media-to-fight-climate-change/
Ladislav Pilaˇr 1,* , Lucie Kvasniˇcková Stanislavská 1 , Jana Pitrová 1 , Igor Krejˇcí 2 , Ivana Tichá 1 and Martina Chalupová
Social media enables people-centric climate action in the hard-to-decarbonise building sector (Debnath R etal) 2022
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23624-9
Email: fernando.romanthi@gmail.com
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