Gaining trust, sowing doubt: the dual use of scientific rhetoric in climate communication on YouTube in South Africa

Abstract Purpose This study aims to investigate the dynamics of climate communication and climate mis- and disinformation on YouTube in South Africa. Methodology Starting from an initial dataset of 5,685 videos, we combined content and thematic analyses with a quali-quantitative approach to examine 46 videos produced by South African channels in 2023, a year marked by record-breaking climate events in the country. Findings We found a predominance of videos adopting a journalistic style, many of them produced by mainstream media outlets for television broadcast. Most relied on scientific argumentation to communicate climate-related issues, featuring scientists as primary sources of information. When analyzing how mis- and disinformation is expressed in our corpus, we observed that false and misleading videos also draw on scientific rhetoric, but deploy it to promote denialist narratives and cast doubt on human influence on climate change. Practical implications Our findings suggest that journalists, science communicators, and scientists in South Africa could benefit substantially from producing evidence-based videos specifically tailored for YouTube, incorporating interactive features to engage diverse audiences more effectively, as climate-related videos produced expressly for digital platforms tend to attract larger audiences and generate higher levels of public engagement. Social implications This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of climate communication and mis- and disinformation on YouTube in South Africa by showing that the country’s communicative ecosystem is characterized by a public debate strongly centered on rationality, with videos – including misleading ones – relying primarily on scientific explanations rather than emotional appeals. This result highlights how scientific rhetoric is mobilized in climate-related content on YouTube in South Africa to establish credibility and public trust, both in the communication of accurate, science-based information and in the promotion of doubt regarding the climate crisis. They also shed light on how anti-structural actors reappropriate scientific capital to gain legitimacy among peers and in the public sphere within a broader context of epistemic crisis. Originality To our knowledge, no prior research has examined the circulation of climate-related content on YouTube in South Africa, nor analyzed the dynamics of climate mis- and disinformation production and dissemination using such an extensive video dataset.