This book examines climate change communication on Twitter (now X) through the lens of transnational public sphere theory. Building on contributions from Nancy Fraser and Iris Marion Young, it argues that the concept of a transnational public sphere is useful if two questions are addressed: legitimacywho should be part of itand effectivenesswho can be reached by transnational discourse. Both are treated as questions of voice, understood as the opportunity to influence the thinking of others.
The study explores whether participants from the Global Southgain international visibility (legitimacy) and under what conditions they reach audiences in the Global North, where the greatest scope for ambitious climate change mitigation policies currently exists (effectiveness). An analysis of global retweet networks shows that users from the Global South are significantly underrepresented and that higher climate vulnerability is negatively associated with visibility. Civil society organizations emerge as crucial brokers of information across regions, amplifying voices otherwise excluded from international debate.
The findings are set against the normative assumptions of public sphere theory and the principles of climate justice.

Autorentext

Stephan Schlögl studies transnational public spheres in the context of social media communication. His research focuses on quantitative and computational methods, including network analysis, and examines global structures of inequality in visibility and voice.

Inhalt

Introduction.- Climate Change as a Matter of Global Politics.- Towards Transnational Public Spheres.- Public Spheres in Times of Social Media.- Studying Attention on Social Networks.- Research Questions.- Data Collection and Sampling.- Methods and Measurements.- Results.- Interpretation.