An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Environmental Organizations’ Facebook Posts That Promote Environment-Friendly Behavior Changes — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Thomas Carr
Katherin Hilson
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Sarah Terrill

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Environmental Organizations’ Facebook Posts That Promote Environment-Friendly Behavior Changes

Name: Luke Shamrock
Major: Public Relations
Hometown: Naperville
Faculty Sponsor: Helene Degross
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

In response to the ever-increasing direness of climate change, the writer of this paper explores whether or not the most widely shared Facebook posts from environmental organizations are effectively encouraging individuals with low knowledge of them and low involvement in them to adopt greenhouse gas emission-reducing behavior changes (environment-friendly behavior changes). Through an original qualitative analysis of their text, images, and linked content, 20 widely-shared Facebook posts from two environmental organizations (Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council) were examined to determine if any of them contained sufficient levels vulnerability-related fear, self-efficacy, and response efficacy. According to this study’s theory, which is based on protection motivation theory and elaboration likelihood model, these three emotions need to be elicited in people in order for them to develop environment-friendly behavior change intentions that will lead to actual behavior changes. Not a single post within the sample was found to contain content that elicited all three of the previously identified emotions. This means that neither Greenpeace or the Natural Resources Defense Council are using Facebook to encourage individuals with low knowledge of them and low involvement in them to adopt environment-friendly behavior changes, even though the number and connectivity of Facebook’s users make it a useful tool for spreading this consumer-oriented message.

Poster file

Submit date: March 7, 2019, 10:52 a.m.