Social media coverage of climate change in post covid era (2020-2023): A study of X

Abstract

The phenomenon of climate change is fast gaining attention among the peoples of the world, especially now that Covid-19 has been described by World Health Organisation as having no threat. Several nations and governments are taking actions and making plans to mitigate the effects of this phenomenon or see how they can circumvent the various ways climate change affects their people, particularly that the deadline of Sustainable Development Goals target draws near in 2030 and having environment at the heart of Goal 15. At different times, there had been discussions at governmental, organizational and group levels. At the individual level, the discussion is also common even among people with little or no familiarity, particularly on the social media. This study sought to know how Twitter, now X, a major social networking site, has been advancing the climate change discussion. A content analysis of trends of discussion on topics bordering on climate change on X was undertaken to examine how trendy these topics are. The period of January to June 2022 was chosen as the duration. It was found that X was used very heavily to spread information about climate change and that majority of the tweets centred on its effects on people around the world.