Climate Communication in the Hybrid Media System: Media and Stakeholder Logics on Social Media

Abstract

Climate change is a major political challenge affecting millions of people worldwide. Journalists- while following media logic - have a strong responsibility to inform the public of the scientific evidence on the causes and consequences of climate change and to explain the motivations driving the climate policies under discussion. However, within hybrid media systems, journalists increasingly compete for attention with climate stakeholders, who tend to follow a political logic in climate communication and bypass journalism to share their perspectives on climate change. Despite this dynamic, the extent to which the climate communication of media organizations and stakeholders diverges in terms of content and focus remains largely unexplored, as does whether their topics and communication styles show signs of convergence. This article addresses these gaps by comparing how journalistic media and climate stakeholders communicate about climate change on social media and by examining the user engagement their content creates. We conducted a manual quantitative content analysis of visual posts about climate change published by media organizations and climate stakeholders in Germany on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube during the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai (N = 1,050). The results deepen our understanding of the national climate discourse in Germany and show that journalistic content in climate communication adheres strongly to media logic, presenting climate change in a more event-oriented, personalized, and negative manner. However, climate stakeholders' communication is characterized by political logic, using strategic framing and focusing less on current climate events.