Issue-Specific Engagement: How Facebook Contributes to Opinion Leadership and Efficacy on Energy and Climate Issues

ABSTRACT

Although social media are increasingly studied for their political impact, not enough is known about how distinct forms of Facebook activity, such as general news consumption and expression vs. issue-specific engagement, explain orientations toward a particular issue. Using a Republican sample, we demonstrate that only issue-specific engagement on Facebook—and not other forms of online behaviors—is consistently associated with a greater sense of personal influence on the issue of climate change and energy, which suggests that distinguishing between types of Facebook activity is important.

KEYWORDS:

• Advocacy
• climate change
• environmental communication
• opinion leadership
• political efficacy
• social media

Notes

1. Weighting variables were gender, age, race/Hispanic ethnicity, education, census region, metropolitan area, and Internet access.

2. The sample of Facebook users differs in a few key ways from non-Facebook users. Using a series of t tests comparing nonusers to users, we see that Facebook users are younger, use more online news, are somewhat more liberal, and are more likely to see themselves as opinion leaders on the topic of climate change, compared to nonusers. All other differences are nonsignificant. Please contact the lead author for details on these analyses.

3. Although exploratory factor analysis helped us identify key factors, we also sorted them on the basis of face validity. For example, conservative bloggers loaded with both conservative sources and specific news outlets; however, based on face validity we classified them with conservative sources. The reliability analysis also suggests that eliminating conservative bloggers from this measure has little effect on the reliability of the measure. Details on this exploratory factor analysis are available from the lead author upon request.

4. This measure does not allow us determine where this information source occurs, and whether it is primarily online, offline, or both, which is a limitation of this measurement.

5. However, since people who “never” used Facebook were eliminated from later analyses, they are not included in this descriptive statistic for comparability, inflating the frequency of Facebook use.

6. The correlation between consumption and expression is r = .62, p < .001, between consumption and issue-specific activity is r = .46, p < .001, and between expression and issue-specific activity is r = .54, p < .001.

7. For parsimony, we report the results of the main effects of climate change belief certainty and issue-specific Facebook engagement in the same model as the interaction term. Therefore, the main effects are standardized, as noted in the reported results. We have run the model without the interaction terms and the same results emerge, with roughly similar weights. Please contact the lead author for information on the model without the interaction terms.

8. We limited our analyses to Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents for parity with the current study. For more details on these analyses, contact the lead author.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported in part by grants from The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and an anonymous donor.

Notes on contributors

Emily K. Vraga

Emily K. Vraga is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. Her research focuses on how individuals process news and political information, particularly in response to disagreeable messages they encounter in the digital media environment. Her e-mail address is [email protected]

Ashley A. Anderson

Ashley A. Anderson is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Technical Communication at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on the intersection of online media discussions, public opinion and engagement, and issues related to science and the environment. Her e-mail address is [email protected]

John E. Kotcher

John E. Kotcher is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. His research focuses on science and environmental communication with an emphasis on how people form judgments about the communication activities of scientists and scientific organizations engaged in policy debates. His e-mail address is [email protected]

Edward W. Maibach

Edward W. Maibach is a University Professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University, and the Director of Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication. His research focuses on public engagement in climate change. His e-mail address is [email protected]