Using content analysis of Internet news article comments to understand climate change denial /
Content analysis of comments on Internet news articles proves effective in understanding how commenters construct knowledge, their understanding of controversial topics such as climate change, and how they express their social identities in anonymous settings which lack the risk associated with expo...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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London :
SAGE Publications Ltd,
2019.
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| Series: | SAGE Research Methods. Cases.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | Content analysis of comments on Internet news articles proves effective in understanding how commenters construct knowledge, their understanding of controversial topics such as climate change, and how they express their social identities in anonymous settings which lack the risk associated with exposure. Studying Internet social interactions is a relatively new method of study in social research. Many researchers seeking to understand Internet social interactions topically employ data mining; however, this proves ineffective for studying the social construction of reality by commenters in online discussion forums. I sought to study persons who do not support climate change as scientific reality, called ́climate change denierś by both academics and laypersons, while they were in debate. To do so, I took a purposive sample of Internet news articles on climate change on the website Yahoo! then performed content analysis on the comments sections. This avoided the Hawthorne effect, but produced validity and accuracy questions at thesis defense due to anonymity of users. However, research has shown the value of anonymity on the Internet. After coding thematically, patterns emerged among the climate change deniers: They did not consider themselves deniers, they considered themselves to be abstaining from climate change support or denial. They also considered the term denier to be a spoiled identity and performed important identity work and stigma negotiation in these comments sections. Researchers seeking to study social interaction on the Internet should understand the drawbacks in this type of research and be prepared to address them at peer review. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource : illustrations. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781526483836 1526483831 |