Public Spheres of Skepticism: Climate Skeptics’ Online Comments in the German Networked Public Sphere

Authors

  • Jonas Kaiser Fellow, Harvard University Associate Researcher, Zeppelin University Associate Researcher, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

Keywords:

counterpublics, public sphere, online comments, climate change, climate skepticism, framing, content analysis, hyperlink network analysis

Abstract

Online comment sections can be considered a public battleground for contestation where members of mainstream publics and counterpublics meet. The case of the climate skeptic counterpublic in Germany was chosen to find out where and how members of the counterpublic are speaking out and how the mainstream responds to that. I conducted a hyperlink network analysis to identify potential battlegrounds, followed by a content analysis of 10,262 user comments from different publics (four news sites, six climate blogs). The results show that the skeptic counterpublic, albeit structurally excluded, is successful in brigading mainstream comment sections and countering the mainstream narrative. The conservative comment sections are especially dominated by counterpublic voices. Mainstream users, however, respond critically to them and challenge the skeptics within their own counterpublic.

Author Biography

Jonas Kaiser, Fellow, Harvard University Associate Researcher, Zeppelin University Associate Researcher, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

Jonas Kaiser, Dr. phil., is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, an associate researcher at Zeppelin University, and an associate researcher at Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society.Correspondence to: Jonas Kaiser, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, 23 Everett Street, 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA. Email: j.kaiser@zeppelin-university.net

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Published

2017-04-14

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Articles

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