No Access

How Do Social Media Users Link Different Types of Extreme Events to Climate Change? A Study of Twitter During 2008–2017

Walid Al-Saqaf

Södertörn University, Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden

E-mail Address: [email protected]

Corresponding author.

Search for more papers by this author

and

Peter Berglez

Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden

Search for more papers by this author

https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737619500027Cited by:8 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

This study examines how three types of extreme events (heat waves, droughts, floods) are mentioned together with climate change on social media. English-language Twitter use during 2008–2017 is analyzed, based on 1,127,996 tweets (including retweets). Frequencies and spikes of activity are compared and theoretically interpreted as reflecting complex relations between the extreme event factor (the occurrence of an extreme event); the media ecology factor (climate-change oriented statements/actions in the overall media landscape) and the digital action factor (activities on Twitter). Flooding was found to be by far the most tweeted of the three in connection to climate change, followed by droughts and heat waves. It also led when comparing spikes of activity. The dominance of floods is highly prevalent from 2014 onwards, triggered by flooding events (extreme event factor), the climate science controversy in US politics (media ecology factor) and the viral power of celebrities’ tweets (digital action factor).

Keywords:

References

Anderson, A [2011] Sources, media and modes of climate change communication: The role of celebrities. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2(4): 535–546. Crossref, Google Scholar
Anderson, A [2014] Media, Environment and the Network Society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Crossref, Google Scholar
Anderson, AA and Huntington HE [2017] Social media, science and attack discourse: How twitter discussions of climate change use sarcasm and incivility. Science Communication, 39(5): 598–620. Crossref, Google Scholar
Atkin, E (2017). Climate change is a warmer atmosphere which holds more moisture which means more rainfall which means more flooding which means more death. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/emorwee/status/901901486581526528 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Berglez, P [2011] Inside, outside, and beyond media logic: Journalistic creativity in climate reporting. Media, Culture & Society, 33(3): 449–465. Crossref, Google Scholar
Berglez, P (2016). Few-to-many communication: Public figures’ self-promotion on Twitter through “joint performances” in small networked constellations. Annals for Istrian and Mediterranean Studies. Series Historia et Sociologia, 26(1): 171–184. Google Scholar
Berglez, P and Lidskog R [2019] Foreign, domestic, and cultural factors in climate change reporting: Swedish media’s coverage of wildfires in three continents. Environmental Communication, 13(3): 381–394. Crossref, Google Scholar
Boykoff, MT [2011] Who Speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press. Crossref, Google Scholar
Boykoff, MT and Goodman MK [2009] Conspicuous redemption? Reflections on the promises and perils of the “Celebritization” of climate change. Geoforum, 40(3): 395–406. Crossref, Google Scholar
Castells, M [2011] A network theory of power. International Journal of Communication, 5(1): 773–787. Google Scholar
CDC [2013] Climate Change and Extreme Heat Events. Washington, DC: National Center for Environmental Health. Google Scholar
Clark, GE [2009] Environmental twitter. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 51(5): 5–7. Crossref, Google Scholar
CNN (2016). Bill Nye: Climate change is the reason for Louisiana floods — and it’s going to happen again. http://cnn.it/2bLI0Vn. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/CNN/status/768265824515817474 [April, 30 2019]. Google Scholar
Cody, EM, Reagan AJ, Mitchell L, Dodds PS and Danforth CM [2015] Climate change sentiment on Twitter: An unsolicited public opinion poll. PLoS ONE, 10(8): e0136092. Crossref, Google Scholar
Connor, P, Harris E, Guy S, Fernando J, Shank DB, Kurz T, Bain PG and Kashima Y [2016] Interpersonal communication about climate change: How messages change when communicated through simulated online social networks. Climatic Change, 136(3–4): 463–476. Crossref, Google Scholar
Corbyn, J (2015). At @TU_EnerGDemo w/ @NaomiAKlein discussing necessity of tackling climate change esp. in light of UK floods #COP21. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/673957185215438848 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Downs, A [1972] Up and down with ecology: The “issue-attention cycle.” Public Interest, 28(Summer): 38–50. Google Scholar
Galtung, J and Ruge MH [1965] The structure of foreign news: The presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus crises in four Norwegian newspapers. Journal of Peace Research, 2(1): 64–90. Crossref, Google Scholar
Hansen, LK, Arvidsson A, Nielsen FA, Colleoni E and Etter M [2011] Good Friends, Bad News — Affect and Virality in Twitter. Future Information Technology, JJ Park, LT Yang, C Lee (eds.), Vol. 185, Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Crossref, Google Scholar
Harcup, T and O’Neill D [2001] What is News? Galtung and Ruge revisited. Journalism Studies, 2(2): 261–280. Crossref, Google Scholar
Hulme, M [2014] Attributing weather extremes to “climate change”: A review. Progress in Physical Geography, 38(4): 499–511. Crossref, Google Scholar
IPCC [2007] Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
Janković, V and Schultz DM [2017] Atmosfear: Communicating the effects of climate change on extreme weather. Weather, Climate and Society, 9(1): 27–37. Crossref, Google Scholar
Kirilenko, AP, Molodtsova T and Stepchenkova SO [2015] People as sensors: Mass media and local temperature influence climate change discussion on Twitter. Global Environmental Change, 30: 92–100. Crossref, Google Scholar
Leetaru, K, Wang S, Padmanabhan A and Shook E [2013] Mapping the global Twitter heartbeat: The geography of Twitter. First Monday, 18(5), https://firstmonday.org/article/view/4366/3654. Crossref, Google Scholar
Lin, Y-R, Keegan B, Margolin D and Lazer D [2014] Rising tides or rising stars?: Dynamics of shared attention on Twitter during media events. PLoS ONE, 9(5): e94093. Crossref, Google Scholar
Liu, JC-E and Zhao B [2017] Who speaks for climate change in China? Evidence from Weibo. Climatic Change, 140(3–4): 413–422. Crossref, Google Scholar
Marwick, AE [2013] Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity and Branding in the Social Media Age. Yale University Press. Google Scholar
McComas, K and Shanahan J [1999] Telling stories about global climate change: Measuring the impact of narratives on issue cycles. Communication Research, 26(1): 30–57. Crossref, Google Scholar
Morehouse, BJ and Sonnett J [2010] Narratives of wildfire: Coverage in four U.S. Newspapers, 1999–2003. Organization & Environment, 23(4): 379–397. Crossref, Google Scholar
Pearce, W, Holmberg K, Hellsten I and Nerlich B [2014] Climate Change on Twitter: Topics, Communities and Conversations about the 2013 IPCC Working Group 1 Report. PLoS ONE, 9(4): e94785. Crossref, Google Scholar
Polsson, K (2019). Chronology of Extreme Weather. http://worldtimeline.info/weather/weat2000.htm [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Redmond, KT [2002] The depiction of drought: A commentary. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 83(8): 1143–1148. Crossref, Google Scholar
Richmond, K (2016). Bill Nye: Louisiana floods due to climate change. https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/23/us/bill-nye-louisiana-flood-new-day/index.html [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Robinson, E (2012). Hey, deniers: After record heat and savage storms, still don’t believe in climate change? Really? http://wapo.st/LLLFBn. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/Eugene_Robinson/status/219951711664611328 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Rudiak-Gould, P [2013] We have seen it with our own eyes: Why we disagree about climate change visibility. Weather, Climate and Society, 5(2): 120–132. Crossref, Google Scholar
Sanders, B (2012). In 2010, a heat wave in #Russia killed 56,000 people. http://ow.ly/c534R #ClimateChange. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/221714014747639809 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Sanders, B (2016). Addressing climate change isn’t just about saving polar bears. It’s about preventing humanitarian crises like mass drought and starvation. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/766624414347718656 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Schäfer, MS [2012] Online communication on climate change and climate politics: A literature review: Online communication on climate change and climate politics. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 3(6): 527–543. Crossref, Google Scholar
Schäfer, M, Berglez P, Wessler H, Eide E, Nerlich B and O’Neill S (2016). Investigating Mediated Climate Change Communication: A Best-Practice Guide. Research Reports No 6. Jönköping: School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University, 1–24. Google Scholar
Schmidt, A, Ivanova A and Schäfer MS [2013] Media attention for climate change around the world: A comparative analysis of newspaper coverage in 27 countries. Global Environmental Change, 23(5): 1233–1248. Crossref, Google Scholar
Scott, T (2015). Banksy’s brilliant comment on climate change denial grows ever more pertinent. #GlobalWarming #Flooding #Floods. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/Tom_Scott/status/681398456175427584 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Smith, N and Leiserowitz A [2012] The rise of global warming skepticism: Exploring affective image associations in the United States over time. Risk Analysis, 32(6): 1021–1032. Crossref, Google Scholar
Sysomos (2010). Replies and retweets on Twitter. https://sysomos.com/inside-twitter/twitter-retweet-stats/ [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
The Green Party (2015). .@natalieben: Cameron’s #floods response is wholly inadequate as he fails to grasp the reality of #climatechange: http://bit.ly/1OoXOIf. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/TheGreenParty/status/681525528021590016 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
The New York Times (2014). The flooding risk from climate change, country by country http://nyti.ms/1ypI8lQ. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/514515709645561856 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
ThinkProgress (2013). Rick Perry declares drought disaster in Texas, again. Still denying climate change. http://thkpr.gs/142vUO9 #icymi. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/thinkprogress/status/348923443632295936 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Trump, D (2012). The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. [Twitter]. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/265895292191248385 [April 30, 2019]. Google Scholar
Ungar, S [1999] Is strange weather in the air? A study of U.S. National Network news coverage of extreme weather events. Climatic Change, 41(2): 133–150. Crossref, Google Scholar
Veltri, GA and Atanasova D [2017] Climate change on Twitter: Content, media ecology and information sharing behaviour. Public Understanding of Science, 26(6): 721–737. Crossref, Google Scholar
Walker, S [2016] The Missing Link: A Preliminary Typology for Understanding Link Decay in Social Media. IConference 2016 Proceedings. iSchools. Crossref, Google Scholar
Whitmarsh, L [2009] What’s in a name? Commonalities and differences in public understanding of “climate change” and “global warming”. Public Understanding of Science, 18(4): 401–420. Crossref, Google Scholar
Williams, HTP, McMurray JR, Kurz T and Lambert H [2015] Network analysis reveals open forums and echo chambers in social media discussion of climate change. Global Environmental Change, 32: 126–138. Crossref, Google Scholar
Williams, ML, Burnap P and Sloan L [2017] Towards an ethical framework for publishing Twitter data in social research: Taking into account users’ views, online context and algorithmic estimation. Sociology, 51(6): 1149–1168. Crossref, Google Scholar
WMO [2013] The Global Climate 2001–2010: A Decade of Climate Extremes. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization. Google Scholar
WMO (2017). Climate Breaks Multiple Records in 2016, with Global Impacts. Press Release. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization. Google Scholar
Wolfe, L (2018). Twitter User Statistics 2008 Through 2017. https://www.thebalance.com/twitter-statistics-2008-2009-2010-2011-3515899. [January 13, 2019]. Google Scholar
Yeo, SK, Handlos Z, Karambelas A, Su LY-F, Rose KM, Brossard D and Griffin K [2017] The influence of temperature on #ClimateChange and #GlobalWarming discourses on Twitter. Journal of Science Communication, 16(5), https://jcom.sissa.it/sites/default/files/documents/JCOM_1605_2017_A01.pdf. Crossref, Google Scholar