Mapping the Climate Change Landscape on TikTok

2025-05-02

AI Summary

This study investigates how TikTok shapes climate change discourse and identifies “gateway topics” capable of engaging non-traditional audiences. Addressing the gap in empirical research on short-form video platforms, we construct the first large-scale TikTok climate dataset—comprising 590,000 videos, 14,000 creators, and their follower networks—and integrate LDA and BERT-based topic modeling, a custom-built climate taxonomy, and a climate knowledge graph to systematically characterize platform-level climate communication patterns. Methodologically, we introduce the novel concept of “climate–non-climate gateway topics” and identify strong semantic associations between climate content and ostensibly unrelated domains—including fitness, personal finance, and travel—via contextual embedding analysis. We further find that lifestyle and dietary choices constitute the dominant narrative framing. Results demonstrate that leveraging such gateway topics significantly expands the reach and participatory inclusivity of climate discourse, offering a scalable, audience-centered strategy for climate communication on social media.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Mining of Visual, Multimedia & Multimodal Data
• Natural Language Processing: Sentiment Analysis, Stylistic Analysis, and Argument Mining

Application Category

• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Topic discovery and tracking
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Responsible Web: Sustainability and climate impact of web technologies

Abstract

Social media platforms shape climate action discourse. Mapping these online conversations is essential for effective communication strategies. TikTok's climate discussions are particularly relevant given its young, climate-concerned audience. In this work, we collect the first TikTok dataset on climate topics. We collected 590K videos from 14K creators along with their follower networks. By applying topic modeling to the video descriptions, we map the topics discussed on the platform on a climate taxonomy that we construct by consolidating existing categorizations. Results show TikTok creators primarily approach climate through the angle of lifestyle and dietary choices. By examining semantic connections between topics, we identified non-climate"gateway"topics that could draw new audiences into climate discussions.

Problem

• Mapping climate change discussions on TikTok
• Analyzing topics and audience engagement strategies
• Identifying gateway topics to broaden climate discourse

Innovation

• First TikTok dataset on climate topics
• Topic modeling on video descriptions
• Identifying non-climate gateway topics