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Climate Change Communication in an Online Q&A Community: A Case Study of Quora

Author

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  • Hanchen Jiang

    (State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Maoshan Qiang

    (State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Dongcheng Zhang

    (State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Qi Wen

    (State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Bingqing Xia

    (State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Nan An

    (State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

Abstract

An emerging research trend in climate change studies is to use user-generated-data collected from social media to investigate the public opinion and science communication of climate change issues. This study collected data from the social Q&A website Quora to explore the key factors influencing the public preferences in climate change knowledge and opinions. Using web crawler, topic modeling, and count data regression modeling, this study quantitatively analyzed the effects of an answer’s textual and auxiliary features on the number of up-votes received by the answer. Compared with previous studies based on open-ended surveys of citizens, the topic modeling result indicates that Quora users are more likely to talk about the energy, human and societal issues, and scientific research rather than the natural phenomena of climate change. The regression modeling results show that: (i) answers with more emphasis on specific subjects, but not popular knowledge, about climate change can get significantly more up-votes; (ii) answers with more terms of daily dialogue will get significantly fewer up-votes; and (iii) answers written by an author with more followers, with a longer text, with more images, or belonging to a question with more followers, can get significantly more up-votes.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanchen Jiang & Maoshan Qiang & Dongcheng Zhang & Qi Wen & Bingqing Xia & Nan An, 2018. "Climate Change Communication in an Online Q&A Community: A Case Study of Quora," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1509-:d:145554
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Wen Shi & Haohuan Fu & Peinan Wang & Changfeng Chen & Jie Xiong, 2020. "#Climatechange vs. #Globalwarming: Characterizing Two Competing Climate Discourses on Twitter with Semantic Network and Temporal Analyses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Wen Shi & Changfeng Chen & Jie Xiong & Haohuan Fu, 2019. "What Framework Promotes Saliency of Climate Change Issues on Online Public Agenda: A Quantitative Study of Online Knowledge Community Quora," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-24, March.
    3. Leon Yufeng Wu & Shannah Pinhsuan Wu & Chun-Yen Chang, 2019. "Merging Science Education into Communication: Developing and Validating a Scale for Science Edu-Communication Utilizing Awareness, Enjoyment, Interest, Opinion formation, and Understanding Dimensions ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Kirtika Deo & Abhnil Amtesh Prasad, 2020. "Evidence of Climate Change Engagement Behaviour on a Facebook Fan-Based Page," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.

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