Identifying Different Semantic Features of Public Engagement with Climate Change NGOs Using Semantic Network Analysis

Eugene Kim () and Noriko Hara
Additional contact information
Eugene Kim: The Media School, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
Noriko Hara: Department of Information and Library Science, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Social media platforms have revolutionized the engagement between climate non-governmental organizations (hereafter, NGOs) and their publics on climate issues. This research diverges from the traditional use of metrics like retweets and likes as simple indicators of identical success in ‘one-way’ climate communication. Instead, it underscores ‘two-way’ interactions and their connections that may vary by specific public engagement features, such as popularity, commitment, and virality. Using semantic network analysis, we analyzed tweets and replies between high-engagement NGOs and their publics, identifying communication patterns tied to particular types of public engagement. Additionally, we investigated shared meanings in these interactions with semantic similarity metrics and assessed sentiment alignment between NGOs and their publics as potential indicators of public engagement. Our findings suggest that climate NGOs should select resonating topics, ensuring their sentiments align with those of their publics. It’s also essential to tailor topics and focus points in climate communication strategies to reflect desired types of public engagement. This study offers insights into optimizing communication and engagement strategies for climate NGOs on social media.

Keywords: public engagement on social media; strategic social media communication; climate change; climate NGOs; semantic network analysis; semantic similarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/4/1438/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/4/1438/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:4:p:1438-:d:1335804

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().