Animal Narratives and Emotional Resonance in #ClimateChange Discourse on Social Media: A Qualitative Content Analysis

Daniela M. Markazi, Rachel M. Magee

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Teens, who are online almost constantly, engage with climate change posts on social media. We present the findings of a qualitative content analysis of the most popular climate change posts (tagged with #ClimateChange) on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Over four weeks in Spring 2022, we collected the top five weekly posts (n = 60) to understand how they address animals and emotions and relate to teens' perceptions of climate change online based on prior survey work with 100 American teens. Our research reveals that more than a quarter (26.7%) of all analyzed posts relate to animals, and many (87.5%) employ negative language when discussing animals. We offer recommendations to enhance online climate change communication for teens, foster pro-environmental behaviors, attitudes, and activism, and study social media discourse across platforms. We highlight the need for further research on youth, climate change, and social media.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCSCW 2023 Companion - Conference Companion Publication of the 2023 Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
EditorsMorgan Ames, Susan Fussell, Eric Gilbert, Vera Liao, Xiaojuan Ma, Xinru Page, Mark Rouncefield, Vivek Singh, Pamela Wisniewski
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages195-200
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9798400701290
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 14 2023
Event26th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2023 - Minneapolis, United States
Duration: Oct 14 2023Oct 18 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

Conference

Conference26th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityMinneapolis
Period10/14/2310/18/23

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Social computing
  • Teenagers
  • Youth

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Human-Computer Interaction

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