SoMeClICS23: Social Media and Climate Change Usage, Literacies, and Interventions from the Perspective of Science Education Leibniz University Hannover Hannover, Germany, March 9-10, 2023

Social media and climate change

Climate change describes a central planetary boundary of humankind (O’Neill et al., 2018) and demands increased efforts in the upcoming years to be able to tackle possible negative effects such as irreversible effects based on global tipping points (Lenton et al., 2019). Regardless of this scientific consensus and stronger political mandates, some groups and individuals still work actively against the further mitigation of climate change (Boussalis & Coan, 2016; Lamb et al., 2020). Even if social media may also be a possibility for fostering environmental activism (Büssing et al., 2019), there may also be negative consequences due to phenomena such as echo chambers and fake news (Walter et al., 2018; Williams et al., 2015). As a result, social media are becoming increasingly important as informal learning environments (Höttecke & Allchin, 2020), which also needs to be reflected in formal education (Büssing et al., 2021).

Objective of project and conference

Based on this background, the project “Social Media and Climate Change: Usage, Literacies and Interventions from the Perspective of Science Education” (SoMeCliCS) aims to understand the role of social media for learning outcomes such as knowledge structures, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors to the topic of climate change. After the project kick-off in March 2022, we plan an in-person conference with presentations on the 09. & 10.03.2023, which will be organized in four strands related to the four subprojects of SoMeCliCS. Based on these four strands we plan to publish an edited volume in a renowned international book series.

Strand I: Usage

The first strand is related to the subproject usage. This strand will include different perspectives on the role of how specific persons and groups use social media. This knowledge is needed to better understand how specific usages may be related to either positive or negative views on climate change. Possible research questions include:

• Which persons or groups are confronted with which contents about climate change in social media?

• Which social media platforms are important for positive or negative views on climate change?

Strand II: Literacies

The second strand is related to the subproject literacies. This strand will discuss different literacies for acting competently in social media environments for the topic of climate change. Possible research questions include:

• What literacies are needed in social media for the topic of climate change?

• How do these literacies relate to classical concepts such as nature of science, communication competencies, or content knowledge?

• What is the relation between new required literacies in social media and science education with classical learning aims?

Strand III: Interventions

The third strand is related to the subproject interventions. It will focus on learning environments that aim to develop desired literacies under consideration of individual usages and thus support an informed and competent learning outcomes in social media on the topic of climate change. Possible research questions include:

• Which interventions are efficient for fostering selected literacies relevant for social media and climate change?

• How autonomously can students learn about these topics or what kind of support is needed (for example based on inclusive or language sensitive approaches)?

• How can inquiry learning be a perspective for learning about social media and climate change?

Strand IV: Digital methods

The fourth strand is related to the subproject digital methods. Given the digital nature of social media, this strand will discuss the perspective of using different innovative digital methods to support science education research in social media. Social media is a complex phenomenon, as due to the large amount of content, algorithms are needed to select relevant contents based on prior interests. To entangle the structures within these media, innovative methods are needed. Possible research questions include:

• Which innovative digital methods are helpful for understanding selected social media phenomena?

• How can social media usage be measured using big data approaches?

• What relations exist between innovative digital methods and existing psychological/ sociological/physiological measures?

Submission process and funding

If you are interested in contributing to one of these strands at the conference and the edited volume (1. Usage, 2. Literacies, 3. Interventions, or 4. Digital methods), you are invited to submit an abstract (up to 1000 words exclusive of references) using the template via Easychair. The deadline for submission is the 10.10.2022. Feedback will be given until the end of October.

Authors accepted are intended to write the first drafts of the full chapters (approx. up to 8000 words) for the edited volume by 15.02.2023. The authors may then present their results in their presentation at the conference (09.03.-10.03.22) and may include comments from other people. The final submission of the chapters is scheduled for 31.03.2023. We will then have 8 weeks of peer-review time and the schedule for revised submissions is the 30.06.2023.

The project is funded in the funding programme “Niedersächsisches Vorab” of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and the Volkswagen foundation. Further information about the project and the conference can be found on the project homepage www.someclics.com. For questions, also concerning a possible feel free to write the chief of the organizing committee Dr. Alexander Büssing (buessing[at]idn.uni-hannover.de). This also concerns questions for possible travel funding to the conference for researchers from outside of Germany, who would not be able to attend otherwise.

References

Boussalis, C., & Coan, T. G. (2016). Text-mining the signals of climate change doubt. Global Environmental Change, 36, 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.12.001

Büssing, A. G., Bergmann, A., & Beniermann, A. (2021). Social Media im Biologieunterricht: Die Lernpotenziale sozialer Medien erkennen und nutzen. Unterricht Biologie, 465, 44–47.

Büssing, A. G., Thielking, A., & Menzel, S. (2019). Can a Like Save the Planet? Comparing Antecedents of and Correlations Between Environmental Liking on Social Media, Money Donation, and Volunteering. Frontiers in Psychology, 10(1989), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01989

Höttecke, D., & Allchin, D. (2020). Re-conceptualizing Nature-of-Science Education in the Age of Social Media. Science Education, 104(4), 641–666. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21575

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, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2020.13

Lenton, T. M., Rockström, J., Gaffney, O., Rahmstorf, S., Richardson, K., Steffen, W., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2019). Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against. Nature, 575(7784), 592–595. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03595-0

O’Neill, D. W., Fanning, A. L., Lamb, W. F., & Steinberger, J. K. (2018). A good life for all within planetary boundaries. Nature Sustainability, 1(2), 88–95. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0021-4

Walter, S., Brüggemann, M., & Engesser, S. (2018). Echo Chambers of Denial: Explaining User Comments on Climate Change. Environmental Communication, 12(2), 204–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2017.1394893

Williams, H. T. P., McMurray, J. R., Kurz, T., & Hugo Lambert, F. (2015). Network analysis reveals open forums and echo chambers in social media discussions of climate change. Global Environmental Change, 32, 126–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.03.006

Organizing comitee