Press "Enter" to skip to content

Author: Rina Tsubaki

What Twitter images tell us about COP27 issues: A focus on the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership and Biodiversity Day

What Twitter images tell us about COP27 issues: A focus on the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership and Biodiversity Day

Published December 22, 2022 by Rina Tsubaki

In our previous exploration we looked at how Twitter hashtags can help us inquire into emerging public issues around global events like COP27. In our rapid exploration, based on the digital methods recipes developed by SUPERB partners at the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London and the Public Data Lab, we identified different ways people engage with forest restoration through keywords like #conservation, #afforestation, and #rewild. Hashtags such as #forestsarenotfuel and #lettreesgrow problematised the economic use of forests. Political matters also came up, linking the Amazon rainforest and changing politics in Brazil.

COP27 was undeniably an important meeting to follow up on last year’s Glasgow Leader’s Declaration on Forests and Land Use, where over 140 world leaders pledged to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030”. This year’s COP also saw dozens of governments collectively announcing the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP), and the day dedicated to biodiversity acted as a platform to discuss the progress of the Glasgow commitment.

Continue readingWhat Twitter images tell us about COP27 issues: A focus on the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership and Biodiversity Day
Leave a Comment
COP27 on Twitter: Forest restoration issues and narratives through hashtags

COP27 on Twitter: Forest restoration issues and narratives through hashtags

Published November 25, 2022 by Rina Tsubaki

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has prompted confusion among its users and concerns about the platform’s future. Musk’s tweets are gathering daily attention due to large-scale layoffs and safety concerns around the new paid blue verification mark. To make things worse, as its engineers are on their way out of the door, users are also experiencing various technical glitches on the platform. Millions of users – including journalists, researchers and organisations – are already signing up on alternative platforms to be prepared for the platform’s deterioration and demise.  

While no one can predict Twitter’s future, it remains widely used by politicians, scientists, companies, NGOs and influencers who are still busy posting on the platform. This includes COP27 in Egypt, where Twitter was one of the main platforms to report on the event. #cop27 has been tweeted over 2.85 million times since 5 November 2022.  

Continue readingCOP27 on Twitter: Forest restoration issues and narratives through hashtags
Leave a Comment
Exploring the world of investigative journalism: Some takeaways from the panel session at the International Forest Policy Meeting (#IFPM4) 

Exploring the world of investigative journalism: Some takeaways from the panel session at the International Forest Policy Meeting (#IFPM4) 

Published May 17, 2022 by Rina Tsubaki

From wildfires to deforestation in the tropics, journalism brings various forest-related issues to the public attention. Yet, one of the main concerns from the scientific communities is the issue of ‘speed over accuracy’, where many news journalists fail to report complex topics without providing contextual background. Particularly in the digital age, when the speed of news is faster than ever before, there is even more pressure on today’s news industry to report forest-related issues in a timely and accurate manner.  

The good news is that there is a wide variety of journalism practices that take serious consideration of the process for inquiry. In particular, investigative journalists take a unique approach to exploring the issues in depth before jumping to a quick conclusion. Many investigative journalists spend years following a single issue by working closely with scientific experts and mastering the skills to wrangle complex (and often unstructured) data to identify the links that no one has ever addressed in the news. 

Continue readingExploring the world of investigative journalism: Some takeaways from the panel session at the International Forest Policy Meeting (#IFPM4) 
Leave a Comment
What does social media engagement around the Amazon rainforest fires tell us about public narratives? – Takeaways from our analysis

What does social media engagement around the Amazon rainforest fires tell us about public narratives? – Takeaways from our analysis

Published March 31, 2022 by Rina Tsubaki

During the months of August and September 2019, the Amazon rainforest fires captured global attention. Celebrities, politicians and other public figures spoke up and shared…

Continue readingWhat does social media engagement around the Amazon rainforest fires tell us about public narratives? – Takeaways from our analysis
Leave a Comment
Cracking complexity: How we helped the media explore the link between finance, supply chain and deforestation 

Cracking complexity: How we helped the media explore the link between finance, supply chain and deforestation 

Published February 28, 2022 by Rina Tsubaki

For almost five years, EFI has been actively engaging with media from all around the world to help them explore complex issues related to European and global forests. Under the Lookout Station, a science-media capacity-building initiative, we’ve trained more than 320 editors and journalists through 12 workshops and masterclasses organised in-person and online. Our focus has always been on building a bridge between science and media by offering free training and open platforms to engage with experts. We’ve taken this approach because we believe in making long-term impacts at the individual and an editorial level instead of merely generating immediate media reporting.  

Continue readingCracking complexity: How we helped the media explore the link between finance, supply chain and deforestation 
Leave a Comment