From Denial to the Culture Wars: A Study of Climate Misinformation on YouTube

References

• Allgaier, J. (2019). Science and environmental communication on YouTube: Strategically distorted communications in online videos on climate change and climate engineering. Frontiers in Communication, 4, 446007. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00036
   Google Scholar
• Alonso, A., & Espinosa-Fajardo, J. (2021). Blitzkriegagainst democracy: Gender equality and the rise of the populist radical right in Spain. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 28(3), 656–681. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxab026
   Google Scholar
• Applebaum, A. (2019, May 2). Want to build a far-right movement? Spain’s Vox party shows how. The Washington Post.
   Google Scholar
• Aronoff, K. (2019, May 31). The European far right’s environmental turn. Dissent.
   Google Scholar
• Aslanidis, P. (2016). Is populism an ideology? A refutation and a new perspective. Political Studies, 64(3), 88–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12224
   Google Scholar
• Barrio, A., de Oger, S. A. S., & Field, B. N. (2021). Vox Spain: The organisational challenges of a new radical right party. Politics and Governance, 9(4), 240–251. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v9i4.4396
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bennett, W., & Livingston, S. (2020). The disinformation age. Cambridge University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Björnberg, K. E., Karlsson, M., Gilek, M., & Hansson, S. O. (2017). Climate and environmental science denial: A review of the scientific literature published in 1990–2015. Journal of Cleaner Production, 167, 229–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.08.066
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Boykoff, M. T. (2007). Flogging a dead norm? Newspaper coverage of anthropogenic climate change in the United States and United Kingdom from 2003 to 2006. Area, 39(4), 470–481. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2007.00769.x
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Boykoff, M. T., & Boykoff, J. M. (2004). Balance as bias: Global warming and the US prestige press. Global Environmental Change, 14(2), 125–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2003.10.001
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2012). Thematic analysis. In H. Cooper, P. M. Camic, D. L. Long, A. T. Panter, D. Rindskopf, & K. J. Sher (Eds.), APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol. 2. Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological (pp. 57–71). American Psychological Association.
   Google Scholar
• Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2020.1769238
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Brüggemann, M., & Engesser, S. (2017). Beyond false balance: How interpretive journalism shapes media coverage of climate change. Global Environmental Change, 42, 58–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.11.004
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Burgen, S. (2023, August 29). Cycle lanes scrapped in south-east Spain as council takes pro-car stance. The Guardian.
   Google Scholar
• Butler, D., & Eilperin, J. (2020, February 23). The anti-Greta: A conservative think tank takes on the global phenomenon. Washington Post.
   Google Scholar
• Carpio, J. A. (2023, July 6). Votos infieles, a quién prefieren los jóvenes o qué pasa con el centro: el perfil de los votantes, según el CIS. RTVE.
   Google Scholar
• Center for Countering Digital Hate. (2024). The new climate denial. How social media platforms and content producers profit by spreading new forms of climate denial. Center for Countering Digital Hate.
   Google Scholar
• Coan, T. G., Boussalis, C., Cook, J., & Nanko, M. O. (2021). Computer-assisted classification of contrarian claims about climate change. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79139-8
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Cook, J., Lewandowsky, S., & Ecker, U. K. (2017). Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence. PLoS One, 12(5), e0175799. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175799
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Counterpoint. (2021). Green wedge? Mapping dissent against climate policy in Europe. Counterpoint.
   Google Scholar
• De la Torre, C., & Mazzoleni, O. (2019). Do we need a minimum definition of populism? An appraisal of Mudde’s conceptualization. Populism, 2(1), 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1163/25888072-02011021
   Google Scholar
• De Nadal, L. (2021, August 9). Spain’s VOX party and the threat of ‘international environmental populism’. OpenDemocracy.
   Google Scholar
• Dircom. (2019, May 7). La comunicación multiplataforma y sus profesionales, clave del éxito de los partidos políticos. Dircom.
   Google Scholar
• Dunlap, R. E., & McCright, A. M. (2010). Climate change denial: Sources, actors, strategies. In C. Lever-Tracy (Ed.), Routledge handbook of climate change and society (pp. 240–259). Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Ekberg, K., Forchtner, B., Hultman, M., & Jylhä, K. M. (2022). Climate obstruction: How denial, delay and inaction are heating the planet. Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Elsasser, S. W., & Dunlap, R. E. (2013). Leading voices in the denier choir: Conservative columnists’ dismissal of global warming and denigration of climate science. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(6), 754–776. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764212469800
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ereaut, G., & Segnit, N. (2006). Warm words: How are we telling the climate change story and can we tell it better? Institute for Public Policy Research.
   Google Scholar
• Falkenberg, M., Galeazzi, A., Torricelli, M., Di Marco, N., Larosa, F., Sas, M., & Baronchelli, A. (2022). Growing polarization around climate change on social media. Nature Climate Change, 12(12), 1114–1121. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01527-x
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Feldman, L., Maibach, E. W., Roser-Renouf, C., & Leiserowitz, A. (2012). Climate on cable: The nature and impact of global warming coverage on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 17(1), 3–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161211425410
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Forchtner, B. (2019). Climate change and the far right. WIRES Climate Change, 10(5), e604. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.604
   Google Scholar
• Forchtner, B., Kroneder, A., & Wetzel, D. (2018). Being skeptical? Exploring far-right climate-change communication in Germany. Environmental Communication, 12(5), 589–604. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2018.1470546
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Galaup, L. (2023, June 1). Guerra en las redes de la extrema derecha: El agitador de ‘que te vote Txapote’ contra los youtubers LGTBI referentes de Vox. El Diario.
   Google Scholar
• Graves, L. (2021). Lessons from an extraordinary year: Four heuristics for studying mediated misinformation in 2020 and beyond. In H. Tumber, & S. Waisbord (Eds.), The Routledge companion to media disinformation and populism (pp. 188–197). Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Gunster, S., Fleet, D., Paterson, M., & Saurette, P. (2018). Climate hypocrisies: A comparative study of news discourse. Environmental Communication, 12(6), 773–793. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2018.1474784
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hameleers, M. (2021). They are selling themselves out to the enemy! The content and effects of populist conspiracy theories. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 33(1), 38–56. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edaa004
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hanson, J. (2023). Looking beyond climate contrarianism: Nationalism and the reterritorialization of climate discourse in Spain’s Vox party. Nordia Geographical Publications.
   Google Scholar
• Hawkins, K. A. (2018). The ideational approach. In C. de la Torre (Ed.), Routledge handbook of global populism (pp. 57–71). Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Hofstadter, R. (2012). The paranoid style in American politics. Vintage Books.
   Google Scholar
• Holder, F., Mirza, S., Carbone, J., & McKie, R. E. (2023). Climate obstruction and Facebook advertising: How a sample of climate obstruction organizations use social media to disseminate discourses of delay. Climatic Change, 176(2), 16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03494-4
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hosseinmardi, H., Ghasemian, A., Clauset, A., Mobius, M., Rothschild, D. M., & Watts, D. J. (2021). Examining the consumption of radical content on YouTube. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(32), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101967118
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Juarez Miro, C., & Toff, B. (2023). How right-wing populists engage with cross-cutting news on online message boards: The case of ForoCoches and Vox in Spain. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 28(4), 770–790. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211072696
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• King, J., Janulewicz, L., & Arcostanzo, F. (2022). Deny, deceive, delay: Documenting and responding to climate disinformation at COP26 and beyond. Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
   Google Scholar
• Klein, N. (2020, December 8). The great reset conspiracy smoothie. The Intercept.
   Google Scholar
• Krange, O., Kaltenborn, B. P., & Hultman, M. (2019). Cool dudes in Norway: Climate change denial among conservative Norwegian men. Environmental Sociology, 5(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2018.1488516
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lamb, W. F., Mattioli, G., Levi, S., Timmons Roberts, J., Capstick, S., Creutzig, F., Minx, J. C., Müller-Hansen, F., Culhane, T., & Steinberger, J. K. (2020). Discourses of climate delay. Global Sustainability, 3(e17), 1–5.
   Google Scholar
• Lewandowsky, S. (2021). Climate change disinformation and how to combat it. Annual Review of Public Health, 42(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-090419-102409
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Lewis, R. (2018). Alternative influence: Broadcasting the reactionary right on YouTube. Data & Society.
   Google Scholar
• Lewis, R. (2020). “This is what the news won’t show you”: YouTube creators and the reactionary politics of micro-celebrity. Television & New Media, 21(2), 201–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419879919
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lockwood, M. (2018). Right-wing populism and the climate change agenda: Exploring the linkages. Environmental Politics, 27(4), 712–732. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2018.1458411
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lockwood, B., & Lockwood, M. (2022). How do right-wing populist parties influence climate and renewable energy policies? Evidence from OECD countries. Global Environmental Politics, 22(3), 12–37. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00659
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Logan, S. (2023, October 31). How ‘greenlash’ is forcing Europe to scale back ambitious net zero policies. Canadian Energy Centre.
   Google Scholar
• Mamié, R., Horta Ribeiro, M., & West, R. (2021, June). Are anti-feminist communities gateways to the far right? Evidence from Reddit and YouTube. Proceedings of the 13th ACM Web Science Conference 2021, 139–147. https://doi.org/10.1145/3447535.3462504
   Google Scholar
• Marcos-Marne, H., Plaza-Colodro, C., & O’Flynn, C. (2021). Populism and new radical-right parties: The case of VOX. Politics. OnlineFirst.
   Google Scholar
• Marlow, T., Miller, S., & Roberts, J. T. (2021). Bots and online climate discourses: Twitter discourse on president trump’s announcement of U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris agreement. Climate Policy, 21(6), 765–777. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2020.1870098
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Marwick, A. E., & Partin, W. C. (2024). Constructing alternative facts: Populist expertise and the QAnon conspiracy. New Media & Society, 26(5), 2535–2555.
   Google Scholar
• Maza, C. (2019, November 11). Far-right climate denial is growing in Europe. The New Republic.
   Google Scholar
• McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2000). Challenging global warming as a social problem: An analysis of the conservative movement’s counter-claims. Social Problems, 47(4), 499–522. https://doi.org/10.2307/3097132
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2011). Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States. Global Environmental Change, 21(4), 1163–1172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.06.003
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Meredith, S. (2023, August 1). From Washington to Warsaw, a ‘greenlash’ is picking up steam despite extreme heat. CNBC.
   Google Scholar
• Meyer, B., & Langengen, T. (2023, August 3). How to address the growing backlash against net-zero policy. Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
   Google Scholar
• Moffitt, B., & Tormey, S. (2014). Rethinking populism: Politics, mediatisation and political style. Political Studies, 62(2), 381–397. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12032
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39(4), 541–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Munger, K., & Phillips, J. (2022). Right-wing YouTube: A supply and demand perspective. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(1), 186–219. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161220964767
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Navarro, M. (2020, January 20). Así son los votantes de Vox del 10N. Público.
   Google Scholar
• Newman, N. (2023). Reuters institute digital news report 2023. Reuters Institute.
   Google Scholar
• O’Neill, S. J., & Boykoff, M. (2010). Climate denier, skeptic, or contrarian? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(39), E151.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2011). Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. Bloomsbury Press.
   Google Scholar
• Painter, J., & Ashe, T. (2012). Cross-national comparison of the presence of climate scepticism in the print media in six countries, 2007–10. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044005
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pearce, W., Niederer, S., Özkula, S. M., & Sánchez Querubín, N. (2019). The social media life of climate change: Platforms, publics, and future imaginaries. WIRES Climate Change, 10(2), e569. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.569
   Google Scholar
• Peinado, F. (2021, April 4). PP y Vox compiten por el voto joven en YouTube. El País.
   Google Scholar
• Pérez Colomé, J. (2023, July 10). Los nuevos ‘columnistas’: así crecen los ‘influencers’ que hablan de política. El País.
   Google Scholar
• Pirro, A. L., & Taggart, P. (2023). Populists in power and conspiracy theories. Party Politics, 29(3), 413–423. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688221077071
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Polletta, F., & Callahan, J. (2019). Deep stories, nostalgia narratives, and fake news: Storytelling in the Trump era. In J. L. Mast, & J. C. Alexander (Eds.), Politics of meaning/meaning of politics (pp. 55–73). Palgrave Macmillan.
   Google Scholar
• Rahmstorf, S. (2004). The climate sceptics. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
   Google Scholar
• Riedl, M. J., Lukito, J., & Woolley, S. C. (2023). Political influencers on social media: An introduction. Social Media + Society, 9(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231177938
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Roberts, K. M. (2015). Populism, social movements, and popular subjectivity. In D. Della Porta, & M. Diani (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of social movements (pp. 681–695). Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Rodríguez-Rata, A. (2023, March 11). La extrema derecha se hace con el control de TikTok, la red social de los menores. La Vanguardia.
   Google Scholar
• Rosenfeld, S. (2011). Common sense: A political history. Harvard University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Rothermel, A. K. (2023). The role of evidence-based misogyny in antifeminist online communities of the ‘manosphere’. Big Data & Society, 10(1), OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517221145671
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Schaller, S., & Carius, A. (2019). Convenient Truths: Mapping climate agendas of right-wing populist parties in Europe. Adelphi Consult GmbH.
   Google Scholar
• Schröder, P., & Benton, T. (2024, January 31). European farmers’ protests show the need for a just transition to Net Zero. Chatham House.
   Google Scholar
• Schwörer, J., & Fernández-García, B. (2023). Climate sceptics or climate nationalists? Understanding and explaining populist radical right parties’ positions towards climate change (1990–2022). Political Studies. OnlineFirst.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sharman, A. (2014). Mapping the climate sceptical blogosphere. Global Environmental Change, 26, 159–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.03.003
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Shaw, C. (2023). Liberalism and the climate change challenge. Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Supran, G., & Oreskes, N. (2021). Rhetoric and frame analysis of ExxonMobil’s climate change communications. One Earth, 4(5), 696–719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.014
   Google Scholar
• Treen, K. M. D. I., Williams, H. T., & O’Neill, S. J. (2020). Online misinformation about climate change. WIRES Climate Change, 11(5), e665. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.665
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Turner, J., & Bailey, D. (2022). ‘Ecobordering’: Casting immigration control as environmental protection. Environmental Politics, 31(1), 110–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2021.1916197
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Tyson, A., Kennedy, B., & Funk, C. (2021, May 26). Gen Z, millennials stand out for climate change activism, social media engagement with issue. Pew Research Center.
   Google Scholar
• Vetter, D. (2021, November 19). 5 big lies about climate change, and how researchers trained a machine to spot them. Forbes.
   Google Scholar
• Vowles, K., & Hultman, M. (2021a). Scare-quoting climate: The rapid rise of climate denial in the Swedish far-right media ecosystem. Nordic Journal of Media Studies, 3(1), 79–95. https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2021-0005
   Google Scholar
• Vowles, K., & Hultman, M. (2021b). Dead white men vs. Greta Thunberg: Nationalism, misogyny, and climate change denial in Swedish far-right digital media. Australian Feminist Studies, 36(110), 414–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2022.2062669
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Weyland, K. (2001). Clarifying a contested concept: Populism in the study of Latin American politics. Comparative Politics, 34(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.2307/422412
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Woolley, S. C. (2022). Digital propaganda: The power of influencers. Journal of Democracy, 33(3), 115–129. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0027
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wynne, B. (1996). May the sheep safely graze? A reflexive view of the expert–lay knowledge divide. In S. Lash, B. Szerszynski, & B. Wynne (Eds.), Risk, environment and modernity: Towards a new ecology (pp. 44–83). Sage.
   Google Scholar
• Ylä-Anttila, T. (2018). Populist knowledge: ‘Post-truth’ repertoires of contesting epistemic authorities. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 5(4), 356–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/23254823.2017.1414620
   Google Scholar