IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/meanco/v8y2020i2p376-386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rezo and German Climate Change Policy: The Influence of Networked Expertise on YouTube and Beyond

Author

Listed:
  • Joachim Allgaier

    (Chair of Society and Technology, Human Technology Center, RWTH Aachen University, Germany)

Abstract

Just before the European election in May 2019 a YouTube video titled The Destruction of the CDU (Rezo, 2019a) caused political controversy in Germany. The video by the popular German YouTuber Rezo attacked the conservative Government party CDU ( Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands ) mainly for climate inaction. As a reaction to the subsequent attacks on Rezo and his video from the political establishment an alliance of popular German YouTubers formed to release a second video. In this video, the YouTubers asked their followers not to vote for the Government or the far-right parties, because they would ignore the expertise of scientists and the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change and therefore be unable to provide sustainable solutions for the future. This debate started as a YouTube phenomenon but quickly evolved into a national public discussion that took place across various social media channels, blogs, newspapers, and TV news, but also e.g., in discussions in schools, churches, as well as arts and cultural events. The focus of this contribution is on the formation of the heterogeneous coalition that emerged to defend and support the YouTubers. It prominently involved scientists and scientific expertise, but other forms of expertise and ‘worlds of relevance’ were also part of this coalition. The conceptual tools of ‘networked expertise’ and ‘ethno-epistemic assemblages’ are employed to explore expertise and credibility as well as the associations and networks of actors involved which illuminate how a single YouTuber was able to contribute to the unleashing of a national debate on climate change policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Joachim Allgaier, 2020. "Rezo and German Climate Change Policy: The Influence of Networked Expertise on YouTube and Beyond," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 376-386.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v8:y:2020:i:2:p:376-386
    DOI: 10.17645/mac.v8i2.2862
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2862
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/mac.v8i2.2862?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v8:y:2020:i:2:p:376-386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.