Is social media more conducive to climate change communication behavior? The mediating role of risk perception and environmental values

Meifen Wu, Ruyin Long (), Hong Chen and Jiaqi Wang
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Meifen Wu: China University of Mining and Technology
Ruyin Long: Jiangnan University
Hong Chen: Jiangnan University
Jiaqi Wang: China University of Mining and Technology

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2024, vol. 26, issue 11, No 90, 29427 pages

Abstract: Abstract Climate change communication is an important behavioral manifestation of the public’s understanding, expression, and participation in addressing climate change. Social media play an important role in the climate change knowledge communication. Does social media promote climate change communication behavior in the Chinese context? Is its effect stronger than other types of media? Combined with the research context, we divide media into central media, local media, and social media and construct the influence mechanism model of media use on climate change communication behavior. In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted among the public in China, and 1062 valid questionnaires were empirically tested by methods of hierarchical regression and bootstrapping. According to the findings of the study, different media use has a positive effect on climate change communication behavior. While social media is more likely to be used by the public to obtain climate change-related information than central and local media (with a mean value of 3.84 for social media compared to 3.51 for central media and 3.19 for local media), it is actually the central media that have the greatest effect on climate change communication behavior. This is evident in the total effect value, where the central media have a value of 0.21, which is higher than social media’s value of 0.20 and local media’s value of 0.12. Risk perception and environmental values play an important mediating role in the influence of media use on climate change communication behavior, among which environmental values have the largest mediating effect. (Specifically, the mediating effects of environmental values were 26.83%, 31.28%, and 38.57% for central media, local media, and social media, respectively.) In addition, risk perception can also positively affect environmental values, thus forming a chain mediating effect between media use and climate change communication behavior (the confidence intervals for the chain mediating effect also exclude the numbers 0).

Keywords: Media use; Risk perception; Climate change communication behavior; Environmental values; Chain mediating effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03870-1

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