In recent years, information disorders, including on environmental issues, have grown in strength and influence, making research involving detailed analyses of how they are organised increasingly important. This article focuses on a Swedish climate obstruction network and investigates the keyphrases (search queries) they suggest people should google. An analysis of keyphrases suggested between 2014 and 2022 on the network's blog and in other publications shows how these suggestions function akin to hyperlinks in organising an alternative media ecosystem. The article introduces the idea of ‘performative links’ as a way to conceptualise how strategically recommended keyphrases operationalise data voids. Performative links encourage users to ‘do their own research’ by suggesting specific keyphrases as search queries. They connect the technical properties of web search engines with society's demands for individual responsibility and media and information literacy, and they help to promote data voids and feeds into information disorders. The analysis of the keyphrases suggested by the studied climate obstruction network focuses on how these keyphrases are composed, where they are published, how they spread, and what search results and thus information they result in. The findings indicate that performative links are crucial in controlling cross-media alternative media ecosystems. They exploit ideological dialects to construct and maintain data voids but also amplify the climate obstruction message and its reach. The article concludes by emphasising the need for more research on information disorders across different media and platforms, as well as the potential risks associated with performative links and data voids. 

The most dangerous problem with AI chatbots in web search might not be that they are great at making things up, but that they are terrible at even basic media and information literacy and can't evaluate sources, writes Jutta Haider, a professor at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, and a member of the program team of Mistra Environmental Communication.

Purpose

This study addresses how algorithmic recommendations and their affordances shape everyday information practices among young people.

Design/methodology/approach

Thematic interviews were conducted with 20 Finnish young people aged 15–16 years. The material was analysed using qualitative content analysis, with a focus on everyday information practices involving online platforms.

Findings

The key finding of the study is that the current affordances of algorithmic recommendations enable users to engage in more passive practices instead of active search and evaluation practices. Two major themes emerged from the analysis: enabling not searching, inviting high trust, which highlights the how the affordances of algorithmic recommendations enable the delegation of search to a recommender system and, at the same time, invite trust in the system, and constraining finding, discouraging diversity, which focuses on the constraining degree of affordances and breakdowns associated with algorithmic recommendations.

Originality/value

This study contributes new knowledge regarding the ways in which algorithmic recommendations shape the information practices in young people's everyday lives specifically addressing the constraining nature of affordances.

“Climate change is a hoax — at least it's not a crisis — and the ‘green transition’ is part of the Great Reset with the ultimate goal of enabling the Great Replacement. Wind farms, solar panels, attempts to reduce meat consumption, or car dependency are all part of a plan by powerful elites to control and manipulate the world's population.” Conspiracy narratives often share striking similarities across various topics. This also applies to the climate crisis. Here, such narratives seem to be proliferating in recent years on certain high-profile issues where change is needed to combat and mitigate climate change, such as energy, food, and mobility, to name just the most obvious. The climate change counter-movement (CCCM) is active on many fronts. Although it contains an undercurrent of conspiratorial thinking, particularly in relation to what is termed science denial, this is not its most dominant characteristic. Recently, however, it appears that an opportunistic exploitation of already established conspiracy narratives increasingly taps into the discontent of groups negatively affected by measures to reduce greenhouse gases, subsumed under the term green transition. This transition is entangled in conflicting goals and interests. If these are not addressed, they will have potentially far-reaching implications for public acceptance of measures to mitigate climate change and society’s ability to reduce GHG and to adapt to the climate crisis. To explain, there are concrete, negative impacts on many communities that will affect people in certain parts of society disproportionately more than others. This includes the loss of jobs in certain industries and regions, nature destruction through mining of rare earth metals, or the construction of wind farms on traditional Sámi reindeer herding lands. All over Europe and in Sweden, local advocacy groups form in opposition to such projects. Their activities are often organised and communicated online, be it on Facebook, a mailing list, WhatsApp, or similar platforms that are open to the leakage of content from other groups and, importantly, other advocacy areas. I am interested in how the informational texture of advocacy issues related to the green transition is constituted by their interrelation with other (contested) issues, particularly online. I want to analyse the joining together of data fragments, i.e., fragments of facts, of conspiracy narratives, of anecdotal and other forms of evidence, etc., to map how or whether opposition to green transition initiatives links to the climate change countermovement. 

Academic journals, archives, and repositories are seeing an increasing number of questionable research papers clearly produced using generative AI. They are often created with widely available, general-purpose AI applications, most likely ChatGPT, and mimic scientific writing. Google Scholar easily locates and lists these questionable papers alongside reputable, quality-controlled research. Our analysis of a selection of questionable GPT-fabricated scientific papers found in Google Scholar shows that many are about applied, often controversial topics susceptible to disinformation: the environment, health, and computing. The resulting enhanced potential for malicious manipulation of society’s evidence base, particularly in politically divisive domains, is a growing concern.

The climate change counter-movement (CCCM) is active on many fronts. Lately, it seems that an opportunistic exploitation of already established conspiracy narratives is increasingly tapping into the discontent of groups negatively affected by the green transition and forging new coalitions. Much of this is happening on social media. But search engines also play an important but poorly understood role. This talk draws on data created with the Result Assessment Tool (RAT) to explore and illustrate some aspects of this. As this is a work in progress, the talk is also seen as an opportunity to discuss methods and empirical choices with the RAT community.