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Climate Change Discussions on Social Media Show Shifting Engagement Patterns
A new comprehensive analysis of climate change discussions across major social media platforms reveals significant variations in user engagement patterns, with unreliable content often receiving disproportionately high attention despite being less prevalent overall.
Researchers examined posts containing keywords such as “climate change,” “climate crisis,” “climate emergency,” and “global warming” across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, tracking both content creation and user engagement from 2019 through recent years.
The data shows striking similarities in how content and engagement are distributed across platforms. While the majority of social media accounts publish only a small number of climate-related posts, a minority of highly active accounts produces the bulk of content. Similarly, a small fraction of posts attracts the majority of user interactions, creating a highly skewed engagement landscape.
“This heavy-tailed distribution is common to most social media platforms,” note the researchers, “and shows the highly uneven nature of both content creation and audience attention in online climate discussions.”
Certain events significantly influenced online climate conversations. September 2019’s Climate Action Week, which involved approximately 7.6 million participants worldwide, and the climate strikes associated with the Fridays for Future movement generated substantial spikes in both content creation and engagement across all platforms. Similarly, the COP26 climate conference in November 2021 produced notable increases in climate-related content and user interaction.
During Climate Action Week, engagement rose dramatically across platforms: Facebook saw interactions jump from 16.7 million to nearly 39 million, Instagram from 24.8 million to 54.9 million, and YouTube experienced the most dramatic increase, from 41.6 million to 123.8 million interactions. COP26 produced similar, though less pronounced, surges in engagement.
However, statistical analysis suggests these event-driven spikes represented temporary fluctuations rather than permanent shifts in engagement patterns. The researchers found that the events’ effects unfolded gradually over time instead of causing immediate lasting changes in discussion trajectories.
The study revealed diverging trends across platforms in terms of content production and engagement. While all platforms showed an increase in climate-related content over time, engagement patterns varied significantly. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube showed declining average engagement per post, while Twitter exhibited an increasing trend.
“These findings suggest that while information sources addressing climate change may be approaching saturation on some platforms, particularly Facebook and Instagram, content production continues to grow,” the researchers explained. “This could indicate that climate information sources are encountering difficulties attracting new participants to online climate discussions.”
Despite these challenges, the analysis found a consistent increase in the number of unique accounts engaged in climate discussions across all platforms, indicating that the topic continues to draw new voices. However, the rate of new accounts joining these conversations has been declining on Facebook, Twitter, and to some extent Instagram.
Perhaps most significantly, the study examined how social media users interact with content from reliable versus unreliable sources. Posts containing links to unreliable sources received higher average engagement than those linking to reliable sources on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Only Twitter bucked this trend, with reliable content generating more engagement.
“Even though unreliable content represents only about 7% of climate-related posts across platforms, it often obtains significantly more user engagement,” the researchers noted. “This counterintuitive dynamic highlights a critical aspect of social media ecosystems where sensationalistic or provocative content can attract disproportionate attention.”
The study also analyzed hashtag usage across platforms to understand how different communities frame climate issues. Hashtags like #climatehoax were prominent in content from unreliable sources, while reliable sources frequently used tags related to scientific discussions and international events like #cop26 and #actionclimate.
Network analysis of hashtag co-occurrences revealed that reliable hashtags tend to cluster closely together across all platforms, suggesting cohesive communities built around verified information sources. In contrast, unreliable hashtags showed greater dispersion, indicating more fragmented communication around misinformation-related narratives.
These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, science communicators, and platform operators seeking to understand how climate information spreads online. They highlight the ongoing challenges of ensuring that factual, science-based content can effectively compete for attention in social media environments where more provocative or controversial content often generates higher engagement.
As climate change continues to be a critical global issue, understanding these online discourse patterns becomes increasingly important for developing effective communication strategies that can reach and influence public opinion.
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11 Comments
As an investor in mining and energy stocks, I’m curious to see how this trend of climate misinformation could impact public perception and policy decisions around critical industries like ours. Maintaining trust and credibility will be paramount.
That’s a good point. Misinformation could sway public opinion and lead to shortsighted policies that hamper the mining and energy sectors’ ability to responsibly support the energy transition. Objective, data-driven dialogue will be key.
Interesting findings. It’s concerning to see misinformation spreading so widely on social media, especially around important topics like climate change. Verifying information sources and promoting digital literacy will be crucial to combat this trend.
Agreed. Social media platforms need to do more to moderate and limit the spread of climate denial content. Fact-checking and transparent labeling of unreliable sources should be standard.
As someone with a keen interest in the mining and energy sectors, I’m concerned about how climate misinformation could impact public perception and policy decisions. Maintaining trust and credibility is crucial for these industries to play a constructive role in the energy transition.
As an investor in mining and energy companies, I’m worried about the potential impact of climate misinformation on public perception and policy decisions. It’s crucial that we have fact-based, objective dialogue to address these critical issues.
This is a concerning trend. Reliable information is crucial for individuals and policymakers to make informed decisions on complex issues like climate change. Social media companies must take stronger action to curb the proliferation of misinformation.
Agreed. Effective moderation and transparency around content sources are essential to maintain the integrity of public discourse on social media.
The findings on the skewed distribution of content creation and engagement are intriguing. It highlights how a small number of highly active users can disproportionately shape narratives on social media. Platforms need robust ways to identify and limit the spread of misinformation.
This is a worrying trend that could have far-reaching consequences. Misinformation around climate change undermines efforts to address a pressing global challenge. Social media platforms must do more to combat the spread of unreliable content.
Exactly. Promoting digital literacy and empowering users to critically evaluate information sources should be a top priority for these platforms.