The human factor in climate change imagery on twitter

Résumé

Climate change images: influence on perception and behavior is still a relatively new area of research. According to past research, climate change images containing the human factor are more effective in communicating the gravity of this issue. To date, no studies have explored which characteristics of climate change images containing the human factor increase effectiveness on Twitter, a social media network critical to the dissemination of climate change information. The aim of this research is to determine to what extent the human factor in climate change images could lead to higher effectiveness in the communication of climate change on social media. This study seeks to test how characteristics of climate change images affect the social media user both in interactivity and emotion. Further, this study aims to identify characteristics of images with the human factor that activate emotions. We analyzed climate change images from Twitter to identify if human presence was more effective in inciting interaction and emotion. We also tested specific variables in climate change images that contained the human factor, based on previous research. Furthermore, we determined which characteristics in these images were most effective. Overall, we found that the human factor did increase the interactivity with these images on Twitter and that humans increased the emotions experienced by viewers of these images. We also identified specific characteristics in climate change images with the human factor that increased the likelihood in inciting interaction and emotion.