Content analysis of tweets sent by tweeters coded as sceptics, convinced, and neutrals, and that mention 'IPCC'. Presentation given at Sunbelt2014 in St Pete, Fl.

1. Combining network structures and meanings:
Tweeting over the IPCC report
Iina Hellsten
Kim Holmberg
VU University Amsterdam
Dept. Organization Sciences
Affiliated The Network Institute
(e) i.r.hellsten@vu.nl
VU University Amsterdam
Dept. Organization Sciences
(e) kim.holmberg@abo.fi
Sunbelt, St Pete Beach, Florida, February 2014

2. Background
In September 2013 the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published
its 5th Assessment report, the first
comprehensive assessment of physical
climate science in six years, constituting a
critical event in the societal debate about
climate change. This research investigates
the content of that debate on Twitter.

3. Research Questions:
1) What kind of topics and meanings integrate
the (structural) communities?
2) What kind of topics and meanings
differentiate the (structural) communities?

4. Data
Tweets containing the acronym “IPCC” were
collected between September 17 and October
8, 2013 (with http://lexiurl.wlv.ac.uk/)
Users stance (convinced, neutral, sceptic) in
climate change debate coded by Pearce et al.
(under review)
The content of these users’ tweets as data

5. Climate change on Twitter: topics, communities
and conversations about the IPCC
Pearce, Holmberg, Hellsten & Nerlich (under review).
239 usernames
coded according to
their stance in the
climate change
debate as convinced,
neutral, sceptics

6. Methods
Semantic networks of each group: 110 most
frequently used noun phrases in the tweets
(extracted with VOSviewer)
Projected the maps for each group on to a
base map, which showed the comprehensive
situation (visualization with Gephi)

7. Example tweets
This is fraud. This is IPCC fraud. Why
have the AR4 projections mysteriously
disappeared or been changed?
http://t.co/5liqycDmt7
#IPCC in #AR5: "Most aspects of
#climate change will persist for
many centuries even if emissions of
#CO2 stopped"
Climate Models Used By IPCC Fail To
Reproduce Decadal & Multidecadal
Patterns Since 1850 @*…+
http://t.co/n4drUNCF1d
@IPCC_CH: Information about the
#IPCC and how it produces reports
http://t.co/pT6N5t4xQ1 #AR5
#climatechange
#Globalwarming is real and human
beings are responsible: #IPCC
http://t.co/lhnsXZBtXg #nature
#world #environment #mot…

8. Analyzing content of the IPCC tweets by tweeter groups
Base map: All

9. Analyzing content of the IPCC tweets by tweeter groups
Skeptics

10. Analyzing content of the IPCC tweets by tweeter groups
Convinced

11. Analyzing content of the IPCC tweets by tweeter groups
Neutrals

12. Results
Significant overlap
between the noun
phrases used by
each group
sceptic convinced neutral
sceptic
1.000
convinced
0.686
1.000
neutral
0.703
0.918
1.000
Table 1. Pearson r for the similarities between
the noun phrases used in each group

13. Table 2. Top 20 noun phrases (shared highlighted)
Sceptic
ipcc report
science
scientist
report
global warming
year
model
warming
models wrong
co2
progress
climate change
earth
fact
poverty servitude
ipcc ar5 report
time
climate
data
humanity
n
103
86
68
66
60
55
43
41
40
39
38
35
35
35
35
33
31
30
30
30
Convinced
report
ipcc report
climate change
scientist
science
world
climate
change
global warming
new ipcc report
action
twitter chat
today
government
time
stockholm
year
summary
ipcc climate report
risk
n
299
286
219
132
91
85
84
80
79
77
65
63
62
61
58
54
53
53
49
43
Neutral
ipcc report
report
climate change
summary
scientist
new ipcc report
science
year
blog
tweet
stockholm
climate
today
policymaker
friday
global warming
comment
question
week
reaction
n
91
81
46
33
32
25
20
20
19
19
17
16
16
16
15
13
13
13
12
12

14. Discussion 1(2)
Shared set of words and phrases:
1) general words related to the event (IPCC report,
climate change, global warming, science, scientists)
2) general targeted audiences (policy making)

15. Discussion 2(2)
Unique set of words and phrases:
1) opposing views on anthropogenic climate change
Sceptics: shame and crime
Convinced: emission, fossil fuels and scenarios
2) different sub-topics
Sceptics: poverty, humanity, model
Convinced: government, public opinion, news, climate
system
3) naming each other
Sceptics: alarmists
Convinced: denier

16. Conclusions
Opposing positions in the debate on anthropogenic
impact on climate change (different words/phrases
used to refer to same event)
Shared words:
Between communities: General focus, integration
Within communities: Different interpretations,
meanings, focus
Unique words:
Between communities: Differentiation
Within communities: Integration

17. Thank you for your attention
Kim Holmberg
VU University Amsterdam
Dept. Organization Sciences
(e) kim.holmberg@abo.fi
Acknowledgements
Funding: NWO Open Research Area (ORA) project ”Climate
Change as a complex social issue”, grant number 464-10-077