The effect of social network sites usage in climate change awareness in Latin America

Abstract

Using data from the Latinobarómetro (Latin Barometer) survey of 2017 to analyze the effect of social network site usage on climate change awareness in 18 Latin American countries, this article makes three contributions. First, it offers results on the socioeconomic determinants of climate awareness in a region of the world where there is scant published evidence in this regard. Second, it shows the effect of social media consumption on climate change awareness by assessing the role of each of the most popular sites: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Tumblr. Third, it assesses the effects of multi-platform consumption. The results show that YouTube has the strongest and most robust positive and statistically significant effect on climate change awareness, followed by Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp, while being a multi-platform user also has a positive and statistically significant effect on climate change awareness. The implications of these findings for understanding the role of social media in the development of environmental awareness are discussed.