How Twitter Impacts the Topic of Climate Change
Panel Name
Innovations in Atmospheric and Climate Change Research and Reporting
Location
Lecture Center Concourse
Start Date
3-5-2019 3:00 PM
End Date
3-5-2019 5:00 PM
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Academic Major
Communication
Abstract
The online discourse about climate change has changed the way social media users receive information about such topics. Typically, people would go to scientific studies and online articles for the source of information about issues like climate change. However, with the ever-growing presence of social media applications like Twitter, people can display their voices and opinions. In this research, we look at studies surveying twitter about the topic of climate change, as well as look at the word climate through the use of the Hedonometer. This tool can calculate the response on Twitter to the word ‘climate.’ Also, we collected data from an online survey in which asks questions about the self-awareness of climate change on Twitter. From our research, we have gathered that the word ‘climate’ and the topic of climate change is talked about more frequently and negatively when a natural disaster strikes. The data we collected suggests that more people become aware of climate change when talked about from an online discourse. When there is a discussion on Twitter about change and rallies towards decreasing climate change, people look at the topic with positivity— thus indicating that people are becoming more aware of the problem of climate change in the media rather than denying it on Twitter.
First Faculty Advisor
Chang Sup Park
First Advisor Email
cpark2@albany.edu
First Advisor Department
Journalism Department
How Twitter Impacts the Topic of Climate Change
Lecture Center Concourse
The online discourse about climate change has changed the way social media users receive information about such topics. Typically, people would go to scientific studies and online articles for the source of information about issues like climate change. However, with the ever-growing presence of social media applications like Twitter, people can display their voices and opinions. In this research, we look at studies surveying twitter about the topic of climate change, as well as look at the word climate through the use of the Hedonometer. This tool can calculate the response on Twitter to the word ‘climate.’ Also, we collected data from an online survey in which asks questions about the self-awareness of climate change on Twitter. From our research, we have gathered that the word ‘climate’ and the topic of climate change is talked about more frequently and negatively when a natural disaster strikes. The data we collected suggests that more people become aware of climate change when talked about from an online discourse. When there is a discussion on Twitter about change and rallies towards decreasing climate change, people look at the topic with positivity— thus indicating that people are becoming more aware of the problem of climate change in the media rather than denying it on Twitter.