@Article{Lahsen:2022:EvCo“B,
author = "Lahsen, Myanna Hvid",
affiliation = "{Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)}",
title = "Evaluating the computational (“Big Data”) turn in studies of media
coverage of climate change",
journal = "Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change",
year = "2022",
volume = "13",
number = "2",
pages = "e752",
month = "Mar./Apr.",
keywords = "big data, meaning-making, media coverage, small data,
vulnerability.",
abstract = "Machine-assisted big data (MABD) research is enabling quantitative
studies of large-scale social phenomena, including societal
responses to climate change. The rise of MABD science is causing
both enthusiasm and concerns. Reviewing prominent criticisms of
MABD and their relevance for MABD explorations of macro-structural
factors shaping media coverage of climate change, this article
finds that the quality and contributions of such studies depend on
avoiding common pitfalls. The review focuses specifically on MABD
studies' attempts to identify and make sense of correlationsor
lack thereofbetween climate vulnerability and climate coverage in
different countries. The review draws on insights from a single,
nationally focused, context-attentive, and relatively more
qualitative small data study in the Global South (Brazil) to shed
critical light on assumptions, claims, and policy recommendations
made based on the computer-assisted macro-studies. The review
illustrates why more narrowly focused and qualitative small data
studies are complementary and indispensable. Besides providing
vital understanding of causal relationships that elude MABD
studies, more narrowly focused and context-sensitive qualitative
studies can foster understanding of the consequential mediating
roles of place-specific meaning-making and political strategizing
in how climate and weather phenomena are framed by social actors
and mass media in particular places. These are dimensions that
escape the Big Data quantitative methods, but that are vital to
sound policy advice, as illustrated by the Small Data research
from Brazil. This article is categorized under: Social Status of
Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice.",
doi = "10.1002/wcc.752",
url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wcc.752",
issn = "1757-7780",
language = "en",
targetfile = "WIREs Climate Change - 2022 - Lahsen - Evaluating the
computational Big Data turn in studies of media coverage of.pdf",
urlaccessdate = "29 jun. 2024"
}