- How to Green Our Parched Farmlands & Finance Critical Infrastructure | Ellen Brown
- From Great Moderation to Great Stagflation | Nouriel Roubini
- The Road to Fascism: How the War in Ukraine is Changing Europe | Ramzy Baroud
- Russia's War and the Global Economy | Nouriel Roubini
- U.S. Considers Radical Rethinking Of Dollar For Today's Digital World | David Gura
- Why is Israel Amending Its Open-Fire Policy?: Three Possible Answers | Ramzy Baroud
- WATCH: Republican National Committee Abandons America
The geoengineering of consent: How conspiracists dominate YouTube climate science content | Frontiers
Credit: CC0 Public DomainJuly 25, 2019 (TechXplore) -- Using YouTube to learn about climate-change-related topics will expose you to video content that mostly opposes worldwide scientific consensus.
That's the finding of a new study published in Frontiers in Communication, which also reveals that some scientific terms, such as geoengineering, have been 'hijacked' by conspiracy theorists so that searches provide entirely non-scientific video content. Scientists could counteract this by forming alliances with influential YouTubers, politicians and those in popular culture, to ensure scientifically accurate video content reaches the widest possible audience.
"Searching YouTube for climate-science and climate-engineering-related terms finds fewer than half of the videos represent mainstream scientific views," says study author Dr. Joachim Allgaier, Senior Researcher at the RWTH Aachen University. "It's alarming to find that the majority of videos propagate conspiracy theories about climate science and technology."
Nearly 2 billion logged-in users -- half the world online -- visit YouTube every month, and research has shown that users see it as a platform for learning about science, health and technology.
(more)
-
CreatedThursday, July 25 2019
-
Last modifiedThursday, July 25 2019
