Mediated climate change politics: the epistemology and performance of contested digital truth claims

Value

£249,282

Partners and collaborators

Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission (YHCC)

Description

When politicians make truth claims, they are usually evaluated as simply true or false, by both scholars and citizens.
Claims might be about the severity of the climate crisis and evidenced with statistics and scientific models. Alternatively, they may raise concerns about the alarmism of climate scientists taking focus away from people's day-to-day difficulties and be substantiated by testimonies from struggling citizens and logical fallacies. Politicians orient truth claims to their audience and rely on shared background representations and dramaturgical devices to appear knowledgeable and authentic and to encourage citizens to identify with them. I therefore approach political constructions of digital truth claims as theatrical performances enacted in digital environments and co-performed and contested by citizens. The conditions of the online attention economy attune user practices and algorithms to favour those performances of truth claims that rely on high-activation emotion, identification, provocation and intuitive understanding rather than detailed scientific evidence. In the context of climate change, the types of truth claims performed by those who might be described as climate deniers are more likely to be effective online.

The project explores the political performance of online truth claims surrounding the UK government's Net Zero policy and citizens' engagement with such truth claims through online argumentation. I aim to delineate the boundaries of valid and perverted digital truth claims in a context of influential climate deniers within UK politics. However, I propose to develop a more nuanced model of the distinct elements of truth claims (including evidence, authority, truthfulness and ways of knowing) than a simple true-false dichotomy implies. In doing so, I seek to appreciate the political conditions of constructing claims and citizens' criteria for evaluating them, especially as truth claims surrounding the UK government's Net Zero policy increasingly affect people's lives and climate denialism potentially becomes more attractive.
 

Impact

The research on climate-related truth claims can inform climate communication policy and strategy by third sector advocates, local authorities and national representatives. I collaborate with the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission (YHCC) and involved local authorities to develop recommendations for accountable, transparent and effective online climate communication and public engagement strategies.

Publications and outputs

Lone Sorensen, Benjamin Krämer (2024).
‘The shift to authenticity: a framework for analysis of political truth claims’. 
Communication Theory, https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtae013