Visual digital intermediaries and global climate communication: Is climate change still a distant problem on YouTube?

PLOS ONE Visual digital intermediaries and global climate communication We address these questions with empirical focus on a major global visual platform that combines both search and social network affordances: YouTube. Pursuing an approach of quantitative description [17] and large-scale observation [11], the study examines how YouTube Search articulates ‘climate change’ to audiences searching for information on the issue around the world. It combines API research, qualitative channel coding, and compu- tational image analysis to analyse and assess the top-ranked search results returned for ‘cli- mate change’ for 232 countries and 85 official languages with a comparative perspective on the underlying processes and results. In order to bring the digital intermediary into focus, we delimit this study to the specifically visual dimension of the platform and videos (i.e. not considering audio or user comments), and assess the presence of a particular set of classic distancing visual themes: arctic landscapes and polar bears. The results show that top-ranked results on YouTube Search largely perpetuate a green ghetto, with some modification. ‘Usual suspects’ such as professional media continue to figure prominently, now joined by some fresh voices in the form of user-led and digitally native pop- ular science channels. Still, both old and new climate communicators continue to reference classic distancing arctic themes. The results also show that the conditions for local connec- tion are constrained. This is in particular the case for regions that share a global language.

Top results for queries in global languages return much the same videos for geographically disparate API search settings (e.g. France, Canada and Cameroon), and channels from one country dominate (e.g. in the case of French, channels based in France). Closer examination reveals distinct profiles in how major language clusters articulate the scope and character of the issue. The study draws on research in the distinct fields of visual climate communication and algorithm audit approaches in platform studies. In the following sections, we therefore first outline the relevant debates in these two fields and how they inform our research questions, before discussing the case of YouTube Search as a global visual platform in the context of online climate communication. We then proceed to the research design and analysis. 2 Visual climate communication and digital platforms 2.1 Towards fresh voices and local connection in visual climate communication? Visual representation, as found in photos, videos, gifs, and memes, is considered a powerful component in climate change communication. Images engage attention and make informa- tion more memorable and credible [18–20]. They shape emotional connection to issues and policy [21,22], and underpin a sense of intimacy and direct connection [23]. What is more, under the right conditions, they can transcend linguistic and national borders [24,25]. This means that visual communication can be key to bringing climate issues close to home. Conversely, visual content can also bolster the impression that the issues of climate change

are abstract and remote in time and place. Ironically, a recurring element in visual climate dis- course is the distancing frame [[26] p. 16], which is broadly assumed to be problematic for engaging people with climate change. The distancing frame reinforces the idea that climate issues are geographically, temporally, and psychologically remote from everyday life. Typi- cal examples include the classic visual themes of political or celebrity elites, polar bears, and empty (arctic) landscapes that became prominent and entrenched at the turn of this century in Global North civil society advocacy campaigns [27], stock footage infrastructures [28], legacy popular science media and climate journalism [26,29–32]. The evidence for the under- lying psychological theory is mixed, and audience perception studies diverge on exactly when and how climate images are experienced as distancing [33–35]. However, a range of studies PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318338 April 8, 2025 3/ 23