Sustainability issue communication and student social media engagement: Recommendations for climate communicators
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Issue Date
2020
Editor
Authors
Hodson, Jaigris
Dale, Ann
Jost, François
Clifton-Ross, Jaime
License
Subject
Social media
Climate change
Marketing
Climate change
Marketing
Abstract
This study explores the digital and social media information habits and
preferences of students, particularly as they concern issues-based communication relating
to climate change and sustainability. Researchers surveyed 203 undergraduate students
studying a wide range of subject areas in a small Canadian liberal arts style university.
Results were analysed using basic statistics to determine broad trends in social and digital
media use among participants, their assessment of what kinds of content they found
engaging online and their preferences relating to searching and sharing information on
news and issues. Different environmental messages were also assessed by participants
for whether they were engaging. Participants used a wide variety of platforms, in diverse
locations, but demonstrated a tendency to use Google and YouTube most often to search
for issues about which they cared. Respondents indicated a preference for image or
video-based content, and also indicated that images and videos made a website more
attractive. They generally reported not sharing news on social media, and tended to rate
environmental messages with a problem-solution framework as most engaging. This
study suggests that climate-change related issue marketing should favour YouTube and
other video content, and should pay close attention to how environmental messages are
presented in order to be most engaging to their target audiences.
Description
Explicit permission has been granted by Henry Stewart Publications for the version of record to be deposited in this repository. The version of record is also available at https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/hsp/jdsmm/2020/00000008/00000003/art00009.