The Role of Social Media Normative Interventions and Environmental Awareness in Intentions to Change Pro-Environmental Behaviors

One of the roles of community education is keeping citizens more informed on the need to conserve their environment. However, for this to be effective in the digital era, the use of modern communication tools is required to keep pace with current technological developments. One of these tools is social media, which is enormously popular and is used by both individuals and organisations for online communication. This paper analyses the role of social media in community-based organisations (CBOs) in creating environmental awareness through community education in Kenya. A non-probability sample comprising nine CBOs in Nakuru City was used to explore activities focused on environmental issues. Data were collected and analysed from a total of 98 respondents who participated in an online survey. It was concluded that the use of social media for environmental awareness in CBOs was minimal, but there is potential in its use as a social learning environment for creating environmental awareness. The study recommends capacity building and open online communication as a means of promoting the use of social media in creating environmental awareness through community education programmes. Keywords: environmental management, environmental awareness, community based organisation (CBO), community education, social media

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Role of Social Media in Environment Awareness

Advances in Environmental Engineering and Green Technologies - Environmental Awareness and the Role of Social Media ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-5291-8.ch006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 117-139

Author(s):

Veethika Tilwankar ◽

Swapnil Rai ◽

S. P. Bajpai

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Social Media ◽

Environmental Awareness ◽

Public Support ◽

Environmental Disturbance ◽

Environment Policy ◽

The People ◽

Day By Day ◽

Environment Awareness

In the past few decades, due to ever increasing needs and greed of man, our environmental quality is deteriorating day by day. Global warming, climate change, hurricanes, melting of icebergs, floods, acid rain, and extinction of flora and fauna is all due to environmental disturbance. Environmental issues have become serious health threats to humans. Pollution is the main reason behind many types of cancer, respiratory, and cardiovascular diseases, which sometimes lead to death. Environment conservation has become the priority of every country worldwide. This problem, which we are facing today, is due to lack of environmental awareness among the individuals and lack of knowledge. This problem can be solved if environmental awareness amongst the people could be raised. The advantage of environment awareness is its contribution to public support for government action in environment policy and management. Environmental awareness can be raised with the educational and informative programs. This chapter explores the role of social media in raising environmental awareness.

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The Influence of Norm Perception on Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Comparison between the Moderating Roles of Traditional Media and Social Media

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17197164 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (19) ◽

pp. 7164

Author(s):

Ruixia Han ◽

Yali Cheng

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Online Survey ◽

Environmental Behavior ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Traditional Media ◽

Environmental Behaviors ◽

Norm Perception ◽

Multi Level ◽

The Relationship

The activation of norm perception can promote pro-environmental behavior. How does media, as important variables in activating norm perception, affect pro-environmental behavior? Through an online survey of 550 randomly selected Chinese citizens, this study examines the roles of traditional media and social media in influencing the relationship between norm perception and pro-environmental behavior. Based on multi-level regression analysis of data, this study found that (1) compared with traditional media, social media play a more significant role in moderating the relationship between norm perception and pro-environmental behavior; (2) the promotion of the perception of injunctive norms by traditional media has a negative relationship with pro-environmental behaviors; (3) the activation of subjective norm perception by social media will promote pro-environmental behaviors. According to this research, in the current media environment, we should carefully release pro-environmental information on social media and encourage relevant discussions, and appropriately reduce environment-relevant injunctive normative information on traditional media. The study also discusses the role of media in regulating norm perception and pro-environmental behavior in different cultural contexts.

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Social media for environmental sustainability awareness in higher education

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education ◽

10.1108/ijshe-01-2015-0010 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 474-491 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Suraya Hamid ◽

Mohamad Taha Ijab ◽

Hidayah Sulaiman ◽

Rina Md. Anwar ◽

Azah Anir Norman

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Social Media ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Keyword Search ◽

Environmental Awareness ◽

University Policy ◽

Content Type ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

The University

Purpose The explosion of social media use such as Facebook among higher education students is deemed to have great potential in widely disseminating environmental sustainability awareness. The paper aims to capture, summarise, synthesise and comment on the role of social media to garner interest of students and staff on environmental sustainability issues. Design/methodology/approach Systematic literature review technique is adopted, and three selected online databases were searched for relevant papers for review. Specific data were extracted from each paper, and the discussion section was based on the developed research questions. Findings Higher education needs to fully leverage the ubiquity of social media to extend how environmental sustainability is viewed by the students and staff. Sustainability practices conducted at the university level such as recycling, reduction of electricity and water consumptions and paper reduction in classroom and used to engage students on environmental matters. For staff, social media can be leveraged as to convey the university policy and assist in their quest to become full-fledged green universities. Research limitations/implications Some of the limitations of this research include the lack of keyword search using synonyms or related terms equivalent to the term “awareness”, lack of forward and backward searches, and the papers were searched until end of 2013 only. Future research needs to take advantage of the current limitations to investigate this topic and be empirically supported by theories using quantitative, qualitative or mixed-method-based research. Future studies could also develop relevant frameworks to propose an effective use of social media for creating environmental sustainability awareness in higher education. Practical implications Propagations of environmental sustainability awareness in higher education would be more effective with the use of social media. Social implications In principle, the increase of environmental awareness level would increase the students’ good behavioural conduct on environmental sustainability. Originality/value While the broad topic of environmental sustainability in higher education is widely discussed, the role of social media in shaping environmental sustainability awareness is still under researched. This situation provides a significant potential for exploration by sustainability researchers to craft their investigation on the effective role of social media in creating environmental awareness in higher education.

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