Politicization of science: how climate change skeptics use experts and scientific evidence in their online communication

2017/11/09 by Hannah Schmid-Petri · 50 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Climate change #Criticism #Ecology #Economics #Epistemology #Global warming #Law #Legitimation #Political science #Positive economics #Psychology #Public Relations and Crisis Communication #Public relations #Science communication #Science education #Scientific consensus #Scientific evidence #Skepticism #Social Media and Politics #Sociology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10584-017-2112-z

published in Climatic Change 145(3-4), 523-537 (Springer Science+Business Media)

openalex publication_date 2017/11/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

This study, using the discussion about climate change in the USA as an example, analyzes the research question of how climate change skeptics use experts and scientific evidence in their online communication. Two different strategies are distinguished: legitimation and criticism. The study conducts a quantitative content analysis of online documents to answer the research question. The results show that the deduced strategies are an important part of the communication of climate change skeptics, who more commonly use the criticism strategy than the legitimation strategy. Results are further differentiated for different actor types and various types of experts.

Citations

• The Internet, Public Spheres, and Political Communication: Dispersion and Deliberation
• Contested Boundaries in Policy-Relevant Science
• Scientific Certainty Argumentation Methods (SCAMs): Science and the Politics of Doubt*
• The Political Divide on Climate Change: Partisan Polarization Widens in the U.S.
• The organisation of denial: Conservative think tanks and environmental scepticism
• When scientists politicize science: making sense of controversy over The Skeptical Environmentalist
• Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature
• Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence

Cited by

• Sarawak Tropical Peat Research Institute [wikipedia]

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