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Corporate funding and the denier movement
http://www.envirolink.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25037
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Author:  Wayne Stollings [ Tue Nov 24, 2015 11:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Corporate funding and the denier movement

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/ ... 2.abstract


Abstract
Drawing on large-scale computational data and methods, this research demonstrates how polarization efforts are influenced by a patterned network of political and financial actors. These dynamics, which have been notoriously difficult to quantify, are illustrated here with a computational analysis of climate change politics in the United States. The comprehensive data include all individual and organizational actors in the climate change countermovement (164 organizations), as well as all written and verbal texts produced by this network between 1993–2013 (40,785 texts, more than 39 million words). Two main findings emerge. First, that organizations with corporate funding were more likely to have written and disseminated texts meant to polarize the climate change issue. Second, and more importantly, that corporate funding influences the actual thematic content of these polarization efforts, and the discursive prevalence of that thematic content over time. These findings provide new, and comprehensive, confirmation of dynamics long thought to be at the root of climate change politics and discourse. Beyond the specifics of climate change, this paper has important implications for understanding ideological polarization more generally, and the increasing role of private funding in determining why certain polarizing themes are created and amplified. Lastly, the paper suggests that future studies build on the novel approach taken here that integrates large-scale textual analysis with social networks

Author:  Johhny Electriglide [ Fri Dec 11, 2015 2:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Corporate funding and the denier movement

Here is a couple related articles that came in today;

Leaked Email Reveals Who's Who List of Climate Denialists
A network of pundits and scientists is consulted about stopping release of "Merchants of Doubt," a documentary film that exposes their work.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/12032 ... -327779449


America Is Only Nation Where Climate Scientists Face Organized Harassment
'I feel for my American colleagues and what they've had to deal with,' one British climate scientist said.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120 ... -327779449

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