Publication
Title
Hot weather, hot topic : polarization and sceptical framing in the climate debate on Twitter
Author
Abstract
Extreme weather events like the heat wave of 2018 reinforce public attention for climate change. Social media platforms facilitate, define and amplify debate about this topic. They give rise to counterpublic spaces through which counterpublics such as climate sceptics get a stage they would not easily get in mainstream media. Previous research suggests that sceptics use these spaces as safe havens, but also as bases for interventions in the hegemonic debate. Applying a multideterminant frame model, we analyse the Twitter debate among climate change ‘sceptics’ and ‘believers’. We study all tweets in which the heat wave was related to climate change and which were shared by Dutch and Flemish users between 28 July 2018 and 4 August 2018. Laying bare the worldviews underlying the frames of sceptics and non-sceptics, we first demonstrate the diversity of – unilaterally interacting – ideological interests. Building upon this analysis of the scope of the debate and analysing its form, we show that both groups mostly use similar antagonistic strategies to delegitimize and denaturalize their out-groups. We argue that these interventions promote polarization rather than a constructive agonistic debate. As such, this study refutes previous studies that consider sceptic frames as deconstructive and non-sceptic frames as constructive.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Information, communication and society. - London
Publication
London : 2022
ISSN
1369-118X [print]
1468-4462 [online]
DOI
10.1080/1369118X.2020.1834600
Volume/pages
25 :8 (2022) , p. 1047-1066
ISI
000586077000001
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Research group
Publication type
Subject
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 03.11.2020
Last edited 29.08.2024
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