Kirthi Shankar

How the Interest of US Twitter Users in Environmental Issues Varies Per Region

Started Aug. 9, 2021

Abstract or project description

Social media sites offer platforms for its users to share their concerns about current events, including

environmental issues. This study analyzes how Twitter users from different regions of the United States talk

about environmental issues, and how discussion about seven specific environmental issues varies across

regions. To investigate how factors like geographic proximity play a role in similarity in environment-related

concerns between regions, we looked at hashtag similarity between regions and the frequency of discussion

about the seven different environmental topics per region. Additionally, we used natural language processing

techniques to see how much environmental issues–such as air pollution and oil spills–played a role in Twitter

discussion. Our data suggests that users are more likely to tweet about issues that are local to the region they

live in, and that environmental issues do not play a huge role in Twitter discussion.