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 suggest that many find the classic repertoires distancing, and some audiences more so than others. There is experimental support for abstract images (e.g. empty landscapes) being more likely to create a perception of climate change as spatially and temporally remote [36]. More- over, observational studies find that audiences in the Global North interpret the classic dis- tancing visual themes associated with mass media climate reporting as salient but demotivat- ing [37–39]. For some, the iconic visual themes have become worn clichés that associate with cynicism and fatigue [37,39,40]. In addition, while images travel, audiences also interpret the same image differently. For indigenous communities and audiences outside the Global North, the themes can be far removed from both familiar visual repertoires and lived experience [41]. Accordingly, recommendations for compelling visual climate communication echo the general call for communicators to prioritise speakers and content with relevance to the audi- ence at hand. The recommendations for visual content emphasise relatable proximity in actual depictions: the advice is to show ordinary or ‘real’ people in authentic (not staged) situations and scenes with local connection [1,40,42]. More generally, recommendations emphasise the value of deploying fresh visual narratives (not one-size-fits-all clichés), and being sensitive to ways in which visual themes, references, and repertoires may be so culturally loaded that they

are not readily relatable outside that context [1,4,24,40]. Testing such principles in the digi- tal sphere, an analysis of 380 images in Twitter ‘top tweets’ confirmed that user engagement in comments, likes and retweets was higher for climate change messages that contain images with real people and include a local connection [3]. In principle, such findings suggest that the digital context may offer an organic path away from the green ghetto of usual suspects and themes. It is easy to assume that the ability to source one’s own visuals would make it easier, and perhaps more likely, to tell stories with local themes [7]. It would follow that, if a variety of communicators use their own sources to tell stories, if images with ordinary people and local connection are popular, and if we factor in how visuals increase the spread of messages [43] and how imitation features in networked visual publicity [44], then online climate discourse would become more varied and usual sus- pects and timeworn distancing themes less dominating. Yet, this is where digital interme- diaries complicate the picture. What climate communicators post is one thing, the visibility afforded them is another. 2.2 Diversity and proximity in online rankings An important part of what platforms do in the world is present issues to audiences. Research in platform studies emphasises the persuasive power inherent in how search engines and social media present actors and content. User audiences stay with default settings [9], and

may not consider who or what is not included. They respond to signals of salience and urgency in engagement metrics and trend tickers [45–47]. They pay attention to, and ascribe authority to, posts positioned at the top [48,49]. Rankings — for which platforms filter, hier- archise, and display actors and content — become pivotal in suggesting the shape, scope, and relevance of issues. Algorithm audit research helps investigate this aspect of what rankings do. Such work sys- tematically probes algorithmic workings in the light of societal implications [50,51], for exam- ple with respect to how rankings amplify gender and race bias [52], misinformation [53], memory politics [54], and political information bias during election periods [55]. Two strands in this literature are pertinent for assessing the persistence of a green ghetto in top rankings. The first centres on the (lack of) diversity at the top, which has bearing on the extent to which fresh voices gain prominence. This work suggests issues of composition PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318338 April 8, 2025 4/ 23