Mediated climate change politics in the post-truth era: the epistemology and performance of contested digital truth claims

后真相时代的气候变化政治：有争议的数字真相主张的认识论和表现

• 批准号: AH/X011631/1
• 负责人: Lone Sorensen
• 金额: $ 26.39万
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX011631%2F1
• 关键词: Mediated; climate; change; politics; post

When politicians make truth claims, they are usually evaluated as simply true or false, by both scholars and citizens. Claims might be about the severity of the climate crisis and evidenced with statistics and scientific models. Alternatively, they may raise concerns about the alarmism of climate scientists taking focus away from people's day-to-day difficulties and be substantiated by testimonies from struggling citizens and logical fallacies. Politicians orient truth claims to their audience and rely on shared background representations and dramaturgical devices to appear knowledgeable and authentic and to encourage citizens to identify with them. I therefore approach political constructions of digital truth claims as theatrical performances enacted in digital environments and co-performed and contested by citizens. The conditions of the online attention economy attune user practices and algorithms to favour those performances of truth claims that rely on high-activation emotion, identification, provocation and intuitive understanding rather than detailed scientific evidence. In the context of climate change, the types of truth claims performed by those who might be described as climate deniers are more likely to be effective online. My project explores the political performance of online truth claims surrounding the UK government's Net Zero policy and citizens' engagement with such truth claims. I aim to delineate the boundaries of valid and perverted digital truth claims in a context of influential climate deniers within UK politics. However, I propose to develop a more nuanced model of the distinct elements of truth claims (including evidence, authority, truthfulness and ways of knowing) than a simple true-false dichotomy implies. In doing so, I seek to appreciate the political conditions of constructing claims and citizens' criteria for evaluating them, especially as truth claims surrounding the UK government's Net Zero policy increasingly affect people's lives and climate denialism potentially becomes more attractive.Two key outcomes of the project will be an interdisciplinary theory of digital political performance in the context of the post-truth debate and a new early-career Network of Digital Political Performance that can further develop this emergent subfield in increasingly interdisciplinary directions. To achieve this, I will bring related but disparate fields into conversation - new media studies, political performance and political epistemology. In my research I propose to integrate and apply them to the empirical study of digital data created by politicians and citizens who engage with each other's claims and expectations about Net Zero in online public spaces. With this project, I will create a body of work - including a book, a special issue and two journal articles - that will stimulate further cross-fertilisation between these fields of scholarship. Importantly, my research on climate-related truth claims can inform climate communication policy and strategy by third sector advocates, local authorities and national representatives. Building on existing relationships, I will work in collaboration with the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission (YHCC), involved local authorities and the Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN) to develop recommendations for accountable, transparent and effective online climate communication and public engagement strategies. I will analyse YHCC's own claim-making on their public engagement platform and citizens' engagement with it and identify the role of local context in co-performed truth claims between stakeholders and citizens. These findings will also be applicable to other local and regional climate stakeholders within PCAN.

当政客提出真理主张时，学者和公民通常都会将他们的评价简单地分为真假。声明可能涉及气候危机的严重性，并有统计数据和科学模型证明。或者，他们可能会担心气候科学家的危言耸听将人们的注意力从人们的日常困难上移开，并被陷入困境的公民的证词和逻辑谬误所证实。政治家向观众提出真相主张，并依靠共同的背景表述和戏剧手法来显得知识渊博和真实，并鼓励公民认同他们。因此，我将数字真相主张的政治建构视为在数字环境中上演并由公民共同表演和竞争的戏剧表演。在线注意力经济的条件调整了用户的实践和算法，以支持那些依赖于高度活跃的情感、认同、挑衅和直观理解而不是详细的科学证据的真相主张的表现。在气候变化的背景下，那些被称为气候否认者的人所提出的真相主张在网上更有可能有效。我的项目探讨了围绕英国政府净零政策的在线真相主张的政治表现以及公民对此类真相主张的参与。我的目的是在英国政坛有影响力的气候否认者的背景下，划定有效和扭曲的数字真相主张的界限。然而，我建议针对真理主张的不同要素（包括证据、权威、真实性和认识方式）开发一个比简单的真假二分法更细致的模型。在此过程中，我试图理解构建主张的政治条件和公民评估这些主张的标准，特别是当围绕英国政府净零政策的真相主张日益影响人们的生活并且气候否认主义可能变得更具吸引力时。该计划的两个关键成果该项目将是后真相辩论背景下的数字政治绩效的跨学科理论，以及新的数字政治绩效的早期职业网络，可以在日益跨学科的方向上进一步发展这一新兴子领域。为了实现这一目标，我将把相关但不同的领域纳入对话中——新媒体研究、政治表现和政治认识论。在我的研究中，我建议将它们整合并应用于对政治家和公民创建的数字数据的实证研究，他们在在线公共空间中相互表达对净零的主张和期望。通过这个项目，我将创作一系列作品——包括一本书、一本特刊和两篇期刊文章——这将促进这些学术领域之间的进一步交叉。重要的是，我对气候相关真相主张的研究可以为第三部门倡导者、地方当局和国家代表的气候传播政策和战略提供信息。在现有关系的基础上，我将与约克郡和亨伯气候委员会 (YHCC) 合作，让地方当局和地方气候行动网络 (PCAN) 参与进来，为负责任、透明和有效的在线气候沟通和公众参与制定建议策略。我将分析 YHCC 在其公共参与平台上的主张以及公民对其的参与，并确定当地背景在利益相关者和公民之间共同执行真相主张中的作用。这些发现也适用于 PCAN 内的其他地方和区域气候利益相关者。