Echo chamber effects in the climate change blogosphere

“The most common definition (Dubois and Blank 2018; Sindermann et al. 2020; Choi et al. 2020; van Eck, Mulder, and van der Linden 2021) of echo chambers comes from Jamieson and Cappella (Jamieson and Cappella 2008).”

“…the formation of these echo chambers, their social dynamics, and their impact on the beliefs and actions of those who inhabit them have generated a growing stream of research (Baele et al., 2019; Bliuc et al., 2018; Oswald & Bright, 2021; Regehr, 2020; Sasahara et al., 2020; van Eck et al., 2021).”

“Audience members with high climate change risk perceptions primarily visit climate mainstream blogs while audience members with low risk perceptions frequently visit climate sceptical blogs (van Eck et al., 2020).”

“…et al., 2020; Elgesem et al., 2015; Kaiser & Puschmann, 2017), current work has started to propose interventions that promote engagement with cross cutting views and opinions as a way of undermining this type of ideological enclave (e.g. Nordbrandt, 2020; van Eck et al., 2020; Walter et al., 2018).”

“For example, van Eck, Mulder, and van der Linden (2012) fi nd a stark divide in how people engage with blogs discussing climate change.”

“Important here is the nuance of van Eck, Mulder, and van der Linden (2021, p. 149) who stated: “ While a strict definition of echo chambers does not allow for any kind of counter-attitudinal exposure, we posit that it is in reality more often the case that audiences are disproportionality exposed…”

“Studies have shown that the blogosphere is an arena for a highly polarised discussion on this issue (Author, 2015; Brüggemann et al. 2020; van Eck 2021).”

“…. . . acting as gatekeepers and interpreters in an alternative knowledge network that is running in parallel to the ways in which, for example, scholarly journal editors carry out the same function in the mainstream academic knowledge network” (Sharman, 2014, pp. 167–168; cf. van Eck et al., 2021).”

“Several studies [5,6, 9, 10] evaluated the effects of echo chambers inside and outside the social network.”

“Climate change, a phenomenon that has garnered significant attention in recent years, has been the subject of extensive research [9, 10].”

“…movement and countermovement actors largely move in distinct spheres (Bloomfield & Tillery, 2019; Brüggemann et al., 2020; Kaiser & Puschmann, 2017; Van Eck et al., 2021), but analyses that examine different affordances suggest there may be more contact between the two sides than is first apparent…”

“Another study performs a cross-sectional examination of the effects of differing climate-related risk perceptions on blog consumption (van Eck et al., 2021); whereas Yuan and Lu (2020) break down the effects of aggressive communication styles on climate-related behaviors through the use of…”

“This dynamic “threa-tens collective action on climate change” among online audiences, suggesting that “online media could potentially be a breeding ground for polarization” (van Eck et al., 2020, p. 150).”

“…the retweet network GWESP effects documented here resonate with analyses of climate misinformation networks showing that climate skeptics form tightly knit, ideologically homogeneous communities that insulate members from contradictory evidence (Treen et al. 2020 ; Van Eck et al. 2021 ).”