Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of COMPÓS
In the midst of an apparent global crisis of trust and truth references, the mediatization of misleading and distorted information by false experts is one of the main strategies of climate denialism.
The objective of this study is to understand how the audience reacts to videos on YouTube which feature supposed experts discrediting the scientific consensus on climate change. We selected 10 videos with a wide circulation on YouTube that address the topic of climate change showing figures of alleged scientific authority who present a denialist bias. We then collected and applied topic modeling to the content of the 11,783 comments posted by platform users on these videos, and also analyzed the content of 69 URLs shared in the comments.
The results indicate a predominance of public support for content that minimizes the human influence on the climate. However, among the external sources activated by URLs, the defense of scientific arguments predominates, indicating an attempt to counteract the denialism on the part of the YouTube audience. Furthermore, some videos published more than ten years ago had a spike in comments in 2022, raising questions over the effectiveness of YouTube's policies and the potential for longevity that the mediatization of denialist ideas has.
How to cite: BARROS, C. SILVA, D. LOUREIRO, M. MEDEIROS, P. SALLES, D. SANTINI, M. CLIMATE DENIAL ON YOUTUBE: how arguments from false experts affect audience comments. In: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 33rd ANNUAL MEETING OF COMPÓS, 2024, Niterói. Electronic proceedings. Campinas, Galoá, 2024.