Denial 2.0: Hyperlinks, Identification, and the Virtual Policy Networks of Climate Change Denial
In my presentation, I will argue that sites that deny the existence, severity, and/or causes of climate change build their ethos almost exclusively through identification with one another and trusted conservative news sources. The resulting networks (formed largely through formal and informal links to like-minded sites) represent what Kathleen McNutt (2010) calls “virtual policy networks,” which, at least in the case of climate change denial, have replaced traditional, autonomous think tanks.
Though the connection between identification and ethos is not surprising, the ways in which these sites rely on identification suggests they exist within a public separate from most scientists and policy makers. In his 1999 Vernacular Voices, Gerard Hauser argues that public spheres emerge in response to a shared ambiguity about an issue in public life. For the writers and readers of denialist sites, the emergence of consensus about the reality and severity of climate change served as a new exigency: fearing any number of possible ramifications (from new regulations to a new world order), these groups coalesced around denial and created a number of linked spaces on the web through which to filter information about climate change. The sites and sub-sites born out of this moment, then, define their credibility by identifying themselves with other denialist organizations and with other politically conservative organizations like Fox News.
By and large, this identification happens through hyperlinks. Hyperlinks, especially in cases where links serve as evocations of the authority of other popular sites, provide the intended connection between like-minded groups and help authorize the denialist content. The hyperlinks on denialist sites provide connections between readers’ other sources of information while reinforcing the basic tenants of the reference world in which they operate. These connections are intentional, rational acts meant to imply connections and trust between the host site and the site to which it links. For the most part, then, these sites operate within a closed loop, traceable through hyperlinks and dependent upon identification with like-minded groups.
Though the connection between identification and ethos is not surprising, the ways in which these sites rely on identification suggests they exist within a public separate from most scientists and policy makers. In his 1999 Vernacular Voices, Gerard Hauser argues that public spheres emerge in response to a shared ambiguity about an issue in public life. For the writers and readers of denialist sites, the emergence of consensus about the reality and severity of climate change served as a new exigency: fearing any number of possible ramifications (from new regulations to a new world order), these groups coalesced around denial and created a number of linked spaces on the web through which to filter information about climate change. The sites and sub-sites born out of this moment, then, define their credibility by identifying themselves with other denialist organizations and with other politically conservative organizations like Fox News.
By and large, this identification happens through hyperlinks. Hyperlinks, especially in cases where links serve as evocations of the authority of other popular sites, provide the intended connection between like-minded groups and help authorize the denialist content. The hyperlinks on denialist sites provide connections between readers’ other sources of information while reinforcing the basic tenants of the reference world in which they operate. These connections are intentional, rational acts meant to imply connections and trust between the host site and the site to which it links. For the most part, then, these sites operate within a closed loop, traceable through hyperlinks and dependent upon identification with like-minded groups.
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