Usage of Climate Change Imagery in boosting Public Engagement on Instagram

Authors

1 School of Visual Arts and Creativity Management,, ESLSCA University

2 Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University

Abstract

The rapid changes in digital media and communication methods have significantly impacted the conceptualization of climate change. To effectively communicate climate images, it is crucial to consider how these images are embraced by the general population.
This study uses a quantitative approach to investigate the impact of climate change visuals on public participation. In a quantitative quasi-experiment posttest, participants are divided into response and epistemic skeptic groups, examining their climate skepticism. Participants complete an Instagram form during the experiment to see how they respond to different images related to climate change. The experiment involves 120 university students, with 60 in each group, with an equal distribution of males and females.
The results indicate that young people prefer to view images of climate solutions rather than images of climate effects and that a significant portion of the subjects lack digital literacy. The reaction group is more likely than the epistemic group to recognize video clips as a sort of visual. It is discovered that public engagement declines with increasing psychological distance from the image.

Keywords

References

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