A3: Misinformation and Accountability in Climate Communication

Chair: Nicholas Paliewicz

The question of how to document the influence of fossil fuel industries on public discourse, policy, politics, and culture is a subject of intense interest. Increasingly, this research is drawn upon to inform political inquiries into fossil fuel manipulation, investigations into specific claims of denial and libel by journalists, legal claims of liability against specific organizations (including Exxon Mobil and the PR companies that enable them) and to document the harassment and misinformation that circulate online. The papers in this panel explore some of the conceptual and methodological questions raised by these developments in the context of practical experiences with the preservation, organization, and analysis of various kinds of evidence of climate deception. Panelists have been involved in creating archives of fossil fuel distortion, generating interview data and organizing historical materials to provide testimony to government investigations into the role of PR in preventing climate action, identifying network patterns of misinformation on social media platforms, filing formal complaints in high profile instances of disinformation by denialist pundits, and assessing how communication and media scholarship on climate communication distortion is drawn upon in libel, denial, and lawsuit decisions including claims of harassment. The forensic and actionable elements of communication and media analysis are now of growing interest as specific instances of misinformation become contested, litigated, subject to platform moderation rules, and offered as precedents for future determinations of misinformation and accountability. In summary, the panel contributes conceptually and methodologically to the growing conversation on climate deception and misinformation.