Internet Memes in Relation to Climate Change Discourse

Media framing has been used long before internet culture arose, this new form of media has changed the ways in which we process these frames and participate in discourse as a community. Andrew Ross, professor at the University of Sydney, and Damian Rivers, professor at Future University Hakodate, explored the new ways in which framing is implemented through the occurrence of internet memes. 

Media frames are the ways in which information is presented to an audience to dispatch information on a given topic. This is done intentionally and purposefully produced to deliver a specific message, often as a way to convince the reader of the author's message. The consumption of this new form of framed media is also studied on the possible effects framing may have on the audience who consumes it. Ross and Rivers cite Robert Entman, a well-known frame theorist, "to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment for the item described." There are no 'unframed' media which signifies the importance of understanding the ways in which they are effective to not only the consumers but the producers. This analysis is done through the sociopolitical and academic discussion of climate change through the utilization of internet memes. 

There are five frames identified in relation to internet memes in regard to climate change:

• Frame 1: The risk is present
• Frame 2: The scientific risk of the claim is true
• Frame 3: The risk is caused by human activities
• Frame 4: Potential consequences of the risk
• Frame 5: How to handle the risk

Within these frames there are two positions in climate logic; convinced or skeptical.

The convinced stance perpetuates the belief that climate change is a real and pressing issue, usually siding with scientists and data. The skeptical stance takes on the belief that climate change is a hoax and usually claims climate change is a natural response from the environment. 

To dissect this, the most common meme formats across several platforms were analyzed. This is typically seen as the TOP TEXT with BOTTOM TEXT punchline format. These memes demonstrate Frame 2: the scientific risk of the claim is true, with examples in convinced and skeptical logic. 

Example A utilizes the TOP TEXT with BOTTOM TEXT punchline as it condescendingly implies "smart" people would not deny climate change. Example B sends the message that it is illogical to deny climate change as it is backed by science. This is an example of convinced logic.

Example A follows the format previously mentioned and attributes climate change to simply nature. Example B claims that climate has been changing since Earth was formed and human impact is irrelevant. This is an example of skeptical logic.

Ross and Rivers state, "... common media frames and applying them to Internet memes, we have shown that a simple message representing a frame can easily be conveyed through this form of communicative media." These frames have shown to be effective even in the new media landscape the internet has created. It is shown that memes are useful tools in climate change discourse and are used as a form of influence depending on how they are framed.