Students' Credibility Evaluation of Climate Change Information on Social Media

For many students, social media is a key source of information on climate change. Its participatory, fast-paced nature fosters the spread of misinformation while hindering in-depth credibility evaluation. Media communication mechanisms like filter bubbles makes it even harder for students to identify credible climate change information. As social media reshape how students engage with and understand science, scholars have urged to expand science education goals from scientific to science media literacy. Yet, what this entails remains unclear. Existing approaches rarely consider social media environments and are not integrated sustainably into students’ behavior. This gap between proposed approaches and actual student behavior highlights the missing basis: how students evaluate climate change information on social media. This cumulative dissertation addresses the gap by (1) examining how students evaluate climate change information on social media and (2) informing a learner- centered science media literacy. Two studies with 10th graders form the basis: a focus group study (N=26) informs papers 1 to 3, and a conjoint-analysis with self- reports (N=361) informs paper 4. Paper 1 identifies common credibility criteria across student groups, while paper 2 contrasts those of activist and non-activist students. Broadening the focus, paper 3 examines students’ awareness and conceptions of media communication mechanisms by distinguishing rather simple and rather elaborate conceptions. Building on paper 1, paper 4 examines the extent to which selected criteria impact credibility perception and investigates gaps between students’ perceptions and behavior. Paper 5 translates these insights into science education practice. The findings of this dissertation reveal that students evaluate the credibility of climate change content on social media through a mosaic of criteria, often applied only superficially. Their perceptions are shaped not just by the content and source, but also by how it is presented. A clear perception-behavior gap emerged for diagrams: students underestimated the powerful influence of visualized data on their credibility judgments. Many of the criteria students used, as well as the mechanisms shaping their credibility perception, were specific to the social media environment. While students’ conceptions of these mechanisms were often implicit and rooted in personal experience, they rarely recognized them as systemic patterns. More elaborate conceptions revealed the central role of an understanding about profit-driven logics, targeted advertising, and algorithms in credibility evaluation of climate change content on social media. Because much of what drives students’ credibility judgments is tied to social media-specific dynamics, this dissertation argues for a targeted science social media literacy. Such literacy should equip students to complement their quick, everyday evaluations with structured, in-depth reflection in the science classroom. These reflections must address both the epistemic side – the uncertainties of scientific knowledge and the inherently probabilistic nature of credibility decisions – and social media specific aspects like commercial interests and algorithmic selection. Only science educational approaches that unites both dimensions can safeguard students against scientific misinformation on social media and strengthen their role as critical participants in public science discourse.