IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/climat/v140y2017i3d10.1007_s10584-016-1883-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who speaks for climate change in China? Evidence from Weibo

Author

Listed:
  • John Chung-En Liu

    (Occidental College)

  • Bo Zhao

    (Oregon State University)

Abstract

Social media provides a new and expanding forum to discuss climate change. Existing research in this area has focused mainly on Twitter and discussions in the United States, while online discussion of climate change in China has been largely unexamined. To fill this gap, we analyzed discussion about climate change on China’s premiere microblogging website, Weibo, over a two month period surrounding the Paris Climate Summit. The results show that institutional users-state media and international actors-dominate the discussion, while Chinese NGOs and public intellectuals are mostly absent from the scene. Discussion on climate change is concentrated in major urban areas, especially in Beijing. A significant proportion of Weibo posts aim to raise climate change awareness; few users discuss topics such as climate science, climate change’s actual impacts on China, or China’s low-carbon policy measures. Climate change appears as a global threat that has little connection to China's national context.

Suggested Citation

  • John Chung-En Liu & Bo Zhao, 2017. "Who speaks for climate change in China? Evidence from Weibo," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 413-422, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:140:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10584-016-1883-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-016-1883-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-016-1883-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10584-016-1883-y?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorien Jasny & Joseph Waggle & Dana R. Fisher, 2015. "An empirical examination of echo chambers in US climate policy networks," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(8), pages 782-786, August.
    2. Saffron O’Neill & Hywel T. P. Williams & Tim Kurz & Bouke Wiersma & Maxwell Boykoff, 2015. "Dominant frames in legacy and social media coverage of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 380-385, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas Hamelin & Passant Halawa, 2024. "Harnessing Social Media for Climate Action in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Egypt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-15, April.
    2. Yixi Yang & Mark C. J. Stoddart, 2021. "Public Engagement in Climate Communication on China’s Weibo: Network Structure and Information Flows," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 146-158.
    3. Becken, Susanne & Stantic, Bela & Chen, Jinyan & Connolly, Rod M., 2022. "Twitter conversations reveal issue salience of aviation in the broader context of climate change," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Shambhu Sajith & RS Aswani & Mohammad Younus Bhat & Anil Kumar & Tarun Dhingra, 2023. "Can offshore wind energy lead to a sustainable and secure South China Sea?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 34(7), pages 2858-2875, November.
    5. Siqing Shan & Xijie Ju & Yigang Wei & Xin Wen, 2022. "Concerned or Apathetic? Using Social Media Platform (Twitter) to Gauge the Public Awareness about Wildlife Conservation: A Case Study of the Illegal Rhino Trade," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-21, June.
    6. Muhammad Ashraf Fauzi, 2023. "Social media in disaster management: review of the literature and future trends through bibliometric analysis," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 118(2), pages 953-975, September.
    7. Wei, Yigang & Gong, Ping & Zhang, Jianhong & Wang, Li, 2021. "Exploring public opinions on climate change policy in "Big Data Era"—A case study of the European Union Emission Trading System (EU-ETS) based on Twitter," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elisabeth Eide & Risto Kunelius, 2021. "Voices of a generation the communicative power of youth activism," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 1-20, November.
    2. Richard Thomas Watson & Kirk Plangger & Leyland Pitt & Amrit Tiwana, 2023. "A Theory of Information Compression: When Judgments Are Costly," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 1089-1108, September.
    3. Mary Sanford & James Painter & Taha Yasseri & Jamie Lorimer, 2021. "Controversy around climate change reports: a case study of Twitter responses to the 2019 IPCC report on land," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 1-25, August.
    4. Valeria Burdea & Jonathan Woon, 2023. "Getting it Right: Communication, Voting, and Collective Truth Finding," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 443, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    5. Soojong Kim, 2019. "Directionality of information flow and echoes without chambers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, May.
    6. Sonya Gurwitt & Kari Malkki & Mili Mitra, 2017. "Global issue, developed country bias: the Paris climate conference as covered by daily print news organizations in 13 nations," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 281-296, August.
    7. Elise Talgorn & Helle Ullerup, 2023. "Invoking ‘Empathy for the Planet’ through Participatory Ecological Storytelling: From Human-Centered to Planet-Centered Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-31, May.
    8. Wändi Bruine de Bruin & Lila Rabinovich & Kate Weber & Marianna Babboni & Monica Dean & Lance Ignon, 2021. "Public understanding of climate change terminology," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 1-21, August.
    9. Heinz, Nicolai & Koessler, Ann-Kathrin, 2021. "Other-regarding preferences and pro-environmental behaviour: An interdisciplinary review of experimental studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    10. Daniela Acquadro Maran & Tatiana Begotti, 2021. "Media Exposure to Climate Change, Anxiety, and Efficacy Beliefs in a Sample of Italian University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-11, September.
    11. Abhishek Samantray & Paolo Pin, 2019. "Credibility of climate change denial in social media," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    12. Sténs, Anna & Mårald, Erland, 2020. "“Forest property rights under attack”: Actors, networks and claims about forest ownership in the Swedish press 2014–2017," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    13. Denghang Chen & Yanlong Guo & Chenyang Wang & Yinrui Xu & Han Zhang, 2022. "Dispersion and Disparity: Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis of Research on Climate Change Science Communication," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-17, November.
    14. Phelps, Jacob & Zabala, Aiora & Daeli, Willy & Carmenta, Rachel, 2021. "Experts and resource users split over solutions to peatland fires," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    15. Malin, Stephanie A. & Mayer, Adam & Crooks, James L. & McKenzie, Lisa & Peel, Jennifer L. & Adgate, John L., 2019. "Putting on partisan glasses: Political identity, quality of life, and oil and gas production in Colorado," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 738-748.
    16. K.C. Busch & Regina Ayala Chávez, 2022. "Adolescent framings of climate change, psychological distancing, and implications for climate change concern and behavior," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 1-19, April.
    17. Sujatha Raman & Warren Pearce, 2020. "Learning the lessons of Climategate: A cosmopolitan moment in the public life of climate science," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(6), November.
    18. Valatin, Gregory & Moseley, Darren & Dandy, Norman, 2016. "Insights from behavioural economics for forest economics and environmental policy: Potential nudges to encourage woodland creation for climate change mitigation and adaptation?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 27-36.
    19. Tomas Molina & Ernest Abadal, 2021. "The Evolution of Communicating the Uncertainty of Climate Change to Policymakers: A Study of IPCC Synthesis Reports," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-12, February.
    20. James Painter & J. Scott Brennen & Silje Kristiansen, 2020. "The coverage of cultured meat in the US and UK traditional media, 2013–2019: drivers, sources, and competing narratives," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 2379-2396, October.

    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:spr:climat:v:140:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10584-016-1883-y. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.