Researchers have analyzed how climate-denying messages are spread through text and images on the internet. The study is based on approximately 18,000 posts published between 2010 and 2023 from eight central Swedish actors in climate disinformation.
The result shows that climate deniers to a high degree imitate the aesthetic expression of science to appear credible.
Climate deniers use many graphs, diagrams, and technical models to signal objectivity and rationality, says one of the researchers, Anton Törnberg.
”Truth-tellers”
Researchers investigated a total of 114 different subject areas related to climate skepticism, in 89 of them, visually-oriented content that alludes to science dominates, such as graphs, diagrams, bars, and heat maps.
In the study, which was published last month, researchers saw that climate-skeptical actors tried to present themselves as rational truth-tellers rather than as political actors.
It is precisely this strategic duality that we think is so interesting. On the one hand, one distances oneself from established science, on the other hand, one uses aesthetic expressions from science, says Törnberg.
Portrayed as hysterical
The study also shows that climate deniers often portray climate activists as irrational and emotionally driven. This happens, among other things, through images and memes where climate activists cry or scream.
They often use sarcastic images and memes, many times from demonstrations. Activists are portrayed as screaming, hysterical, and threatening, says Törnberg.
Another conclusion in the study is that the visual language of climate deniers links the climate movement to totalitarian ideologies. This happens, for example, through the spread of memes that allude to Nazism and communism.
One sees today's climate communication as propaganda. There are images where one has replaced the swastika on Nazi uniforms with recycling symbols. The climate movement is portrayed in environments that are perceived as manipulative and emotionally driven, which stands in clear contrast to how they themselves want to present themselves, says Anton Törnberg.
Material:
–17,848 image-text posts, collected from eight websites spanning the period 2010 to 2023.
Some of the websites are; Klimatfakta, Klimatupplysningen, Det Goda Samhället, Nya Tider, and Samnytt.
Selection:
Researchers write in the study that the sites together constitute a cross-section of blogs, alternative media, and right-wing radicals that are influential in the climate-skeptical movement in Sweden.
Method:
The study combines quantitative and qualitative methods. Researchers have, among other things, used AI tools to systematically analyze how images and texts interact to create narratives.
The 17,848 image-text posts were sorted into 114 different "clusters", i.e., subject groups.
Keywords related to climate have been used to distinguish the material.
Source: University of Gothenburg
