Mediated climate change politics in the post-truth era: the epistemology and performance of contested digital truth claims

当政治家发表真理声明时，学者和公民通常会简单地评价他们是对还是错。这些说法可能是关于气候危机的严重性，并得到统计数据和科学模型的证明。或者，它们可能会引起人们对气候科学家的危言耸听的担忧，把注意力从人们的日常困难上转移开，并得到苦苦挣扎的公民的证词和逻辑谬误的证实。政治家们将真理的主张定位于他们的听众，依靠共同的背景表现和戏剧手段来表现出知识渊博和真实，并鼓励公民认同他们。因此，我将数字真理主张的政治建构视为在数字环境中制定的戏剧表演，并由公民共同表演和争论。在线注意力经济的条件调整了用户的实践和算法，以支持那些依赖于高激活情绪、识别、挑衅和直觉理解而不是详细的科学证据的真理声明的表现。在气候变化的背景下，那些可能被描述为气候否认者的人所做的真相声明的类型更有可能在网上有效。我的项目探讨了围绕英国政府净零政策的在线真相声明的政治表现，以及公民对此类真相声明的参与。我的目标是在英国政治中有影响力的气候否认者的背景下，划定有效和扭曲的数字真相主张的界限。然而，我建议开发一个更细致入微的模型，来描述真理主张的不同元素（包括证据、权威、真实性和认知方式），而不是简单的真假二分法。在这样做的过程中，我试图欣赏构建索赔和公民评估它们的标准的政治条件，特别是围绕英国政府的净零政策的真相索赔日益影响人们的生活，气候否认主义可能变得更有吸引力。该项目的两个关键成果将是后真相辩论背景下的数字政治表现跨学科理论，以及一个新的早期职业数字政治表现网络，可以在越来越多的跨学科方向上进一步发展这一新兴子领域。为此，我将引入相关但不同的领域——新媒体研究、政治表现和政治认识论——进行对话。在我的研究中，我建议将它们整合并应用于政治家和公民创造的数字数据的实证研究，他们在在线公共空间中参与彼此对净零的主张和期望。通过这个项目，我将创作一系列作品——包括一本书、一期特刊和两篇期刊文章——这将进一步促进这些学术领域之间的相互融合。重要的是，我对气候相关真相声明的研究可以为第三部门倡导者、地方当局和国家代表的气候传播政策和战略提供信息。在现有关系的基础上，我将与约克郡和亨伯气候委员会（YHCC）合作，让地方当局和基于地方的气候行动网络（PCAN）参与，制定负责任、透明和有效的在线气候沟通和公众参与战略的建议。我将分析YHCC自己在公众参与平台上的声明，以及公民对其的参与，并确定当地环境在利益相关者和公民之间共同执行的真相声明中的作用。这些发现也将适用于PCAN内的其他地方和区域气候利益相关者。

When politicians make truth claims, they are usually evaluated as simply true or false, by both scholars and citizens. Claims might be about the severity of the climate crisis and evidenced with statistics and scientific models. Alternatively, they may raise concerns about the alarmism of climate scientists taking focus away from people's day-to-day difficulties and be substantiated by testimonies from struggling citizens and logical fallacies. Politicians orient truth claims to their audience and rely on shared background representations and dramaturgical devices to appear knowledgeable and authentic and to encourage citizens to identify with them. I therefore approach political constructions of digital truth claims as theatrical performances enacted in digital environments and co-performed and contested by citizens. The conditions of the online attention economy attune user practices and algorithms to favour those performances of truth claims that rely on high-activation emotion, identification, provocation and intuitive understanding rather than detailed scientific evidence. In the context of climate change, the types of truth claims performed by those who might be described as climate deniers are more likely to be effective online. My project explores the political performance of online truth claims surrounding the UK government's Net Zero policy and citizens' engagement with such truth claims. I aim to delineate the boundaries of valid and perverted digital truth claims in a context of influential climate deniers within UK politics. However, I propose to develop a more nuanced model of the distinct elements of truth claims (including evidence, authority, truthfulness and ways of knowing) than a simple true-false dichotomy implies. In doing so, I seek to appreciate the political conditions of constructing claims and citizens' criteria for evaluating them, especially as truth claims surrounding the UK government's Net Zero policy increasingly affect people's lives and climate denialism potentially becomes more attractive.Two key outcomes of the project will be an interdisciplinary theory of digital political performance in the context of the post-truth debate and a new early-career Network of Digital Political Performance that can further develop this emergent subfield in increasingly interdisciplinary directions. To achieve this, I will bring related but disparate fields into conversation - new media studies, political performance and political epistemology. In my research I propose to integrate and apply them to the empirical study of digital data created by politicians and citizens who engage with each other's claims and expectations about Net Zero in online public spaces. With this project, I will create a body of work - including a book, a special issue and two journal articles - that will stimulate further cross-fertilisation between these fields of scholarship. Importantly, my research on climate-related truth claims can inform climate communication policy and strategy by third sector advocates, local authorities and national representatives. Building on existing relationships, I will work in collaboration with the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission (YHCC), involved local authorities and the Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN) to develop recommendations for accountable, transparent and effective online climate communication and public engagement strategies. I will analyse YHCC's own claim-making on their public engagement platform and citizens' engagement with it and identify the role of local context in co-performed truth claims between stakeholders and citizens. These findings will also be applicable to other local and regional climate stakeholders within PCAN.