Social Media Coverage of Climate Change Issues

Abstract

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.