The Colors of a #climatescam: An Exploration of Anti-Climate Change Graphs on Twitter
Climate change is a looming and present threat. Although reported and explored in traditional media, there is still a general ignorance regarding its acceleration and its real-world consequences. Specifically, in recent years, a number of natural disasters including tsunamis, derechos and hurric...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
ORDT: Organization for Research Development and Training
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Journal of Interdisciplinary Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journalofinterdisciplinarysciences.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2-The-Colors-of-a-climatescam-An-Exploration-of-Anti-Climate-Change-Graphs-on-Twitter.pdf |
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| Summary: | Climate change is a looming and present threat. Although reported and explored in
traditional media, there is still a general ignorance regarding its acceleration and its real-world
consequences. Specifically, in recent years, a number of natural disasters including tsunamis,
derechos and hurricanes have shown a very prescient threat. Unfortunately, misinformation regarding
climate change’s severity is rampant. One such channel of misinformation is social media. Both verbal
evidence and images can be shared when presenting an argument. When discussing climate change,
one such argument style is showing evidence; graphs are one such way to demonstrate empirical
evidence. I obtained graphs from Twitter and analyzed how they were utilized in furthering climate
denial. While understanding the spread of misinformation regarding climate change is no doubt
important, this paper seeks to evaluate one potential solution: identifying the graphs used, and the
methodology they employ. Information literacy and specifically, media literacy, is one step in
understanding climate change. The results show that the most popular graphs reused were line
graphs, and the most prominent arguments against climate change were that the science was
incorrect, or that climate change was instead natural temperature fluctuation. The most popular
colors used were blue and green. |
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| ISSN: | 2594-3405 |