El obstruccionismo climático en redes socialesdesinformación y ataques contra las voces de la ciencia

  1. Vicente Torrico, David 1
  2. Hernando Lera, Marta 1
  3. González Puente, Víctor 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Valladolid
    info

    Universidad de Valladolid

    Valladolid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01fvbaw18

Journal:
Zer: Revista de estudios de comunicación = Komunikazio ikasketen aldizkaria

ISSN: 1137-1102

Year of publication: 2024

Volume: 29

Issue: 56

Pages: 173-199

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1387/ZER.25929 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Zer: Revista de estudios de comunicación = Komunikazio ikasketen aldizkaria

Abstract

Given the access barriers imposed by traditional media, climate obstructionism has found a new distribution system for its messages in social networks and messaging services. Using a case study approach, this article proposes an analysis of communications attacking scientific organizations, institutions, public representatives, activists, and media outlets. The study sample, which consists of a total of 129 messages, covers the verification of climate crisis related content conducted until June 30, 2023 by fact-checking agencies operating in Spain. The results demonstrate that this new denialism has shifted from questioning the work of scientists to sowing doubts about the messengers, including activists, institutions and media.

Bibliographic References

  • A.P. (21 de abril de 2023). La AEMET pide "respeto" tras enfrentarse a una turba de conspiracionistas: "Nos estáis fumigando". El Periódico de España. https://www.epe.es/es/actualidad/20230421/aemet-conspiracion-clima-86310221
  • Abbar, S., Zanouda, T., Berti‐Equille, L. y Borge‐Holthoefer, J. (2016). Using Twitter to understand public interest in climate change: The case of Qatar. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1603.04010
  • Abellán López, M. Á. (2021). El cambio climático: negacionismo, escepticismo y desinformación. Tabula Rasa, 37, 283–301. https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n37.13.
  • Anderson, A.A., Scheufele, D.A., Brossard, D. y Corley, E.A. (2012). The role of media and deference to scientific authority in cultivating trust in sources of information about emerging technologies. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 24(2), 225–237, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edr032
  • Andrino, B., Pérez, J. y Rodríguez, R. (12 diciembre, 2019). Histérica, marioneta y majareta: los insultos que hombres dedican a Greta Thunberg en Twitter. El País. https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2019/12/12/actualidad/1576106658_165755.html
  • Arce García, S., Díaz Campo, J., y Cambronero Saiz, B. (2023). Online hate speech and emotions on Twitter: a case study of Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 in 2019. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 13(1), 48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13278-023-01052-5
  • Bessi, A., Coletto, M., Davidescu, G. A., Scala, A., Caldarelli, G. y Quattrociocchi, W. (2015). Science vs conspiracy: Collective narratives in the age of misinformation. PloS one, 10(2). https://doi.org/e0118093
  • Boykoff, M. T. (2009). El caso del cambio climático: los medios y la comunicación científica. Infoamérica: Iberoamerican Communication Review, 1, 117-127.
  • Capstick, S.B. & Pidgeon, N.F. (2014). What is climate change scepticism? examination of the concept using a mixed methods study of the UK public. Global Environmental Change, 24, 389–401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.08.012
  • Chen, K., Molder, A. L., Duan, Z., Boulianne, S., Eckart, C., Mallari, P. & Yang, D. (2022). How climate movement actors and news media frame climate change and strike: Evidence from analyzing twitter and news media discourse from 2018 to 2021. The International Journal of Press/Politics. Advance online publication, 28(2), 384-413. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612221106405
  • Cook, J., Lewandowsky, S. & Ecker, U.K. (2017). Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence. PloS one, 12(5), e0175799. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175799
  • Corner, A., Roberts, O., Chiari, S., Völler, S., Mayrhuber, E. S., Mandl, S. & Monson, K. (2015). How do young people engage with climate change? The role of knowledge, values, message framing, and trusted communicators. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 6(5), 523-534. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.353
  • Darius, P. y Stephany, F. (2019). “Hashjacking” the Debate: Polarisation Strategies of Germany’s Political Far-Right on Twitter. En Social Informatics: 11th International Conference, Doha, Qatar, November 18–21, 2019, Proceedings 11 (pp. 298-308). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_21
  • Di Placido, D. (29 de diciembre de 2022). Esta es la respuesta viral de Greta Thunberg al ataque de Andrew Tate en Twitter. Forbes. https://forbes.es/actualidad/213906/esta-es-la-respuesta-viral-de-greta-thunberg-al-ataque-de-andrew-tate-en-twitter/
  • Dias, N. and Sippitt, A. (2020), Researching Fact Checking: Present Limitations and Future Opportunities. Political Quarterly, 91(3), 605–613. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.12892
  • Diethelm, P. and McKee, M. (2009). Denialism: What is it and how should scientist respond? European Journal of Public Health, 19(1), 2–4, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ ckn139
  • Ekberg, K., Forchtner, B., Hultman, M. y Jylhä, K.M. (2022). Climate Obstruction: How Denial, Delay and Inaction Are Heating the Planet. Routledge.
  • Elgesem D., Steskal L. y Diakopoulos N. (2015). Structure and content of the discourse on climate change in the blogosphere: The big picture. Environmental Communication, 9, 169-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2014.983536
  • Frances Bloomfield, E. y Tillery, D. (2019). The Circulation of Climate Change Denial Online: Rhetorical and Networking Strategies on Facebook. Environmental Communication, 13(1), 23-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2018.1527378
  • Gandolfo, V. J. (2017). Falta de derechos humanos y violencia: La crisis ambiental en América Latina [Tesis de grado]. Universidad Trinity College
  • García Avilés, J.A., Navarro Maillo, F. y Arias Robles, F. (2014). La credibilidad de los contenidos informativos en internet para los nativos digitales: estudio de caso. Palabra clave, 17(3), 875-894. https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2014.17.3.13
  • García Jiménez, A., Tur Viñes, V. y Pastor Ruiz, Y. (2018). Consumo mediático de adolescentes y jóvenes. Noticias, contenidos audiovisuales y medición de audiencias. Icono 14, 16(1), 22-46. https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v16i1.1101
  • García Hernández, J., y López Gallegos, M. (2018). Mujeres mártires ambientales en América Latina. Una visibilización de los ecofeminicidios por la defensa del territorio en México. HistoriAgenda, 3(33), 21–33
  • Hameleers, M. (2020). My reality is more truthful than yours: Radical right-wing politicians’ and citizens’ construction of “fake” and “truthfulness” on social media—Evidence from the United States and the Netherlands. International Journal of Communication, 14, 18. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/12463
  • Hameleers, M. y van der Meer, T. (2020). Misinformation and Polarization in a High-Choice Media Environment: How Effective Are Political Fact-Checkers? Communication Research, 47(2), 227–250. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650218819671
  • Harvey, J.A., Van den Berg, D., Ellers, J., Kampen, R., Crowther, T.W., Roessingh, P., Verheggen, B., Nuijten, R., Post, E., Lewandowsky, S., Stirling, I., Balgopal, M., Amstrup, S.C. y Mann, M.E. (2018). Internet Blogs, Polar Bears, and Climate-Change Denial by Proxy. BioScience, 68(4), 281-287. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix133
  • Heras, F. (2013). La negación del cambio climático en España: percepciones sociales y nuevos tratamientos mediáticos. En R. Mancinas Chávez (coord.) y R. Fernández Reyes (dir.) Medios de comunicación y cambio climático (pp. 155-170). Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de Sevilla.
  • Heras, F. (2018). Respuestas ante el negacionismo climático de relaciones ecosociales y cambio global. Revista PAPELES, 140, 119-130.
  • Hermida, A., Fletcher, F., Korell, D, y Logan, D. (2012). Share, Like, Recommend. Decoding the Social Media News Consumer. Journalism Studies, 13 (5-6): 815-824. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2012.664430
  • Herrero, E. & Herrero Damas, S. (2021). El fact-checker en español alrededor del mundo: Perfil, similitudes y diferencias entre verificadores hispanohablantes. Revista de Comunicación de la SEECI, 54, 49–77, https://doi.org/10.15198/seeci.2021.54.e725
  • Holsti, O.R. (1969). Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities. Addison Wesley
  • Howell, E.L., Wirz, C.D., Scheufele, D.A., Brossard, D. y Xenos, M.A. (2020). Deference and decision-making in science and society: How deference to scientific authority goes beyond confidence in science and scientists to become authoritarianism’. Public Understanding of Science, 29(8), 800–818, https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0963662520962741
  • IPCC (2022). AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2022. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycl
  • Jang, S. M., y Hart P. S. (2015). Polarized frames on “climate change” and “global warming” across countries and states: Evidence from Twitter big data. Global Environmental Change, 32, 11–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.02.010
  • Kirilenko, A. P. y Stepchenkova, S. O. (2014). Public microblogging on climate change: One year of Twitter worldwide. Global Environmental Change, 26, 171–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.02.008
  • Lamb, W.F., Mattioli, G., Levi, S., Roberts, J.T., Capstick, S., Creutzig, F., Minx, J.C., Müller-Hansen, F., Culhane, T., y Steinberger, J.K. (2020). Discourses of climate delay. Global Sustainability, 3(17), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2020.13
  • Lampis, A. (2013). La adaptación al cambio climático: el reto de las dobles agendas. En J.C. Postigo (ed.) Cambio climático, movimientos sociales y políticas públicas: una vinculación necesaria. Clacso.
  • León, B. y Bourk, M. (2018). Communicating Science and Technology through Online Video. Routledge
  • León, B. y Erviti, M.C. (2013). Science in pictures: Visual representation of climate change in Spain’s television news. Public Understanding of Science, 24(2), 183–199, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662513500196
  • Martín Sánchez, A. (2020). Respuestas a la crisis climática: negacionismo populista y nacionalismo verde. Ecología Política, 59, 24-28. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/ descarga/articulo/7528856.pdf
  • Martín Sosa, S. (2021). Apuntes metodológicos para el estudio del negacionismo climático en los medios escritos. Communication & Methods, 3(1), 56-66. https://doi.org/10.35951/v3i1.111
  • McKie, R., Holder, F., Sanober, M., Carbone, J. & Ngo-Lee N. (2022). Climate Obstruction and Facebook Advertising: How a Sample of Climate Obstruction Organizations Use social media to Disseminate Discourses of Delay. Climatic Change, 176, 16. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1760493/
  • Meyer, H., Peach, A.K., Guenther, L., Kedar, H.E. y Brüggemann, M. (2023). Between Calls for Action and Narratives of Denial: Climate Change Attention Structures on Twitter. Media and Communication 11, (1), 278–292. https://doi.org/ 10.17645/mac.v11i1.6111
  • Mohan, L. (25 de Agosto de 2021). Perspective: Tackling misinformation on YouTube. Inside YouTube. https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/tackling-misinfo/
  • Molina Cañabate, J.P. y Magallón Rosa, R. (2020). Desinformación y periodismo científico: el caso de Maldita Ciencia. Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación: Mediterranean Journal of Communication, 11(2), 11-21. https://doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM2020.11.2.4 10.14198/MEDCOM2020.11.2.4
  • Moreno Olmeda, T. (2022). Del negacionismo climático al obstruccionismo: el argumentario de la inacción y su amplificación en YouTube. Dilemata, 38, 119-134. https://www.dilemata.net/revista/index.php/dilemata/article/view/412000489
  • Nguyen, A. & Catalan, D. (2020). Digital mis/disinformation and public engagment with health and science controversies: Fresh perspectives from Covid-19. Media and Communication, 8(2), 323–328. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i2.3352
  • Norgaard, K.M. (2006). “People want to protect themselves a little bit”: Emotions, denial, and social movement nonparticipation. Sociological Inquiry, 76(3): 372–396. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2006.00160.x
  • Painter, J., Erviti, M.C., Fletcher, R., Howarth, C., Kristiansen, S., León, B., Ouakrat, A., Russell, A. y Schäfer, M.S. (2016). Something old, something new: digital media and the coverage of climate change. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
  • Riffe, D., Lacy, S. & Fico, F.G. (2005). Analyzing media messages: Using quiantitative content analysis in research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
  • Rodrigo Cano, D. y Del Río Álvarez, M. J. (2021). La desinformación sobre salud y cambio climático en redes sociales. En J.C. Figuereo-Benítez y R. Mancinas-Chávez (coords.) Las redes de la comunicación: estudios multidisciplinares actuales (pp. 833-846). Dykinson.
  • Schäfer, M.S. (2015). Climate change and the media. En J.D. Wright (ed) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (pp. 853-859). Elsevier
  • Shapiro, M.A. y Park, H.W. (2015). More than entertainment: YouTube and public responses to the science of global warming and climate change. Social Science Information, 54(1), 115-145. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018414554730
  • Siwakoti, S., Yadav, K., Bariletto, N., Zanotti, L., Erdogdu, U. & Shapiro, J.N. (2021). How COVID drove the evolution of fact-checking. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2(3), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-69
  • Stencel, M., Ryan, E. & Luther, J. (21 de junio de 2023), Misinformation spreads, but fact-checking has leveled off. Duke Reporters’ Lab. https://reporterslab.org/ misinformation-spreads-but-fact-checking-has-leveled-off/
  • Tran, D. y Hanaček, K. (2023). A global analysis of violence against women defenders in environmental conflicts. Nature sustainability, 6, 1045-1053. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1038/s41893-023-01126-4
  • Vosoughi, S., Roy, D. y Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146-1151. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559
  • Yin, R.K. (1989). Case study research: design and methods, applied social research methods series. Sage