Sustainability issue communication and student social media engagement: Recommendations for climate communicators

Jaigris Hodson, Ann Dale, François Jost and Jaime Clifton-Ross
Additional contact information
Jaigris Hodson: College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Canada
Ann Dale: Royal Roads University, Canada
François Jost: School for Environment and Sustainability, Canada
Jaime Clifton-Ross: School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University, Canada

Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 2020, vol. 8, issue 3, 277-290

Abstract: This study explores the digital and social media information habits and preferences of students, particularly as they concern issues-based communication relating to climate change and sustainability. Researchers surveyed 203 undergraduate students studying a wide range of subject areas in a small Canadian liberal arts style university. Results were analysed using basic statistics to determine broad trends in social and digital media use among participants, their assessment of what kinds of content they found engaging online and their preferences relating to searching and sharing information on news and issues. Different environmental messages were also assessed by participants for whether they were engaging. Participants used a wide variety of platforms, in diverse locations, but demonstrated a tendency to use Google and YouTube most often to search for issues about which they cared. Respondents indicated a preference for image or video-based content, and also indicated that images and videos made a website more attractive. They generally reported not sharing news on social media, and tended to rate environmental messages with a problem-solution framework as most engaging. This study suggests that climate-change related issue marketing should favour YouTube and other video content, and should pay close attention to how environmental messages are presented in order to be most engaging to their target audiences.

Keywords: social media; issue marketing; uses and gratifications; climate change marketing; sustainability marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hstalks.com/article/6024/download/ (application/pdf)
https://hstalks.com/article/6024/ (text/html)
Requires a paid subscription for full access.

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:aza:jdsmm0:y:2020:v:8:i:3:p:277-290

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing from Henry Stewart Publications
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Henry Stewart Talks ().