Silent Amid Crisis: The Failure to Articulate Climate Change in Local Government Social Media Communication in Bengkulu City

Abstract

Local government levels also need to respond in the various spheres touched by climate change. Local government agencies (OPD) social media profiles have strategic value for the communication of the public, education and information dissemination, and awareness of the climate danger and adaptive potential. The research analyzes the communication, and the lack thereof, of climate change within the social media of OPD of Bengkulu City, which being a coastal area, faces the most immediate threats of climate change— flooding, coastal abrasion, and extreme weather. Using a mixed-method approach, the study examines Instagram content of six climate relevant OPD through post frequency, content categorization and framing analysis. OPD accounts communication is very often, but climate change is almost never described as a public issue. There is a lot of communication in the ceremonial and administrative style, and climate adaptive actions, like the planting of trees and management of the coastal area, are described as simple and calendarized activities, and not as actions addressing climate danger. The practice of climate change is describing reality, not as a constructed public issue. Community forums in each municipality offered participants an opportunity to weigh in on potential solutions relevant to each of the defined priority themes for the unconference. Due to time constraints, it was not possible to address every priority theme in detail, although some were able to address more than one theme. Each municipality offered an opportunity for participants to identify issues for potential solutions.