Ⅰ. Introduction
Climate change communication is a major concern in countries around the world because the manifestation and impact of climate change is becoming more and more clearly and stronger. Moser(2010) mentioned the main aspects of the communication process (section audience and media coverage, audience, structure, message, mode and mass media channels, and communication effectiveness assessments). In recent years, the rise of internet access and new communications technologies have led to the development of online methods for gathering public opinion.
Online surveys became more popular over the past decade for several reasons, including relatively low management costs, the prevalence of internet communications, and feedback rate is higher than traditional survey methods (Leona et al., 2017). Koteyko et al.(2015) gave an objective view of climate change communication in the digital age, referring to the study of climate change communication on the internet via blogs and social networks. Scholars were increasingly focusing on social network platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Sina Weibo. Social media platforms provided a space for three key areas of climate change communication: information, discussion, and calls to action from users(Edson and Nicholas, 2017)
In Viet Nam, in recent years, the climate change issue was paid special attention by many government agencies and non-governmental organizations. In particular, many researches on this issue in the media were implemented such as the situation and proposed solutions to contribute to improving the quality of information on the climate change(Dinh, 2015; Quach, 2016). Only in a short time, there were many articles, documentaries, reports and special issues on climate change that were published, broadcasted and built on many newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs at both central and local levels. The weakness of these media is the low level of interaction between the communication channels and the communicated objects. Information is one-sided and it is difficult to gather feedback from the communicated objects. In ‘Mass Communication with Climate Change’, Dinh (2015) also pointed out that media on climate change communication were not fully effective because it did not take full advantage of the role of the Internet, social media, including social network (Dinh, 2015).
The overview showed that online climate change communication is becoming popular and convenient. Compared to other traditional media, its outstanding advantages are such as fast communication capability, for many groups of communication subjects, good interaction, rich form of expression, more attractive and low cost. Especially, climate change communication via the Facebook network in Vietnam has many advantages to develop due to the large number of users and rapidly increasing, in which most are young people. However, there is no survey database on the use of Facebook network to communicate climate change in Vietnam today. Therefore, the research team conducted a small online sociological survey in a short time in Vietnam. The main goal is to evaluate the current status and the effectiveness of climate change communication via Facebook in Vietnam today, and to point out the causes of ineffective communication. In addition, this study also provides a scientific basis for managers and communicators to find solutions to improve climate change communication via Facebook in Vietnam in the future.
Ⅱ. Methods
1. Audience Insight tool
The Audience Insight tool of Facebook was used to statistic media pages climate change on social networks Facebook and analysis Facebook user objects in Vietnam. Facebook has allowed users to search and update the latest information and continuously. Thus, this tool has been used to statistics on the current use of Facebook in Vietnam, including: Facebook pages, post time, content and presentation, the amount of interaction between Facebook user and articles, the most interested contents.
2. Sociological investigation method
- Questionnaire survey was designed to serve the research content. Online collection mode.
- Investigators: All Facebook users, irrespective of gender, age, occupation, living area.
- Sample size and sample: To demonstrate the superiority of Facebook is the rapid interaction between Facebook users and home page, we surveyed online, in a short time (from 26/4/2018 to 2/5/2018). 121 people responded to the survey, in which mostly students. Samples are selected randomly according to the interaction of Facebook users.
- The questionnaire consists of 10 questions, divided into the following: Facebook user's interest in climate change communication on social networks; Evaluate the effectiveness of some climate change pages (content, form, trust, interaction).
3. Method for assessing the effectiveness of climate change communication via Facebook
- Criteria for effectiveness evaluation: To assess the effectiveness of climate change communication via Facebook networks, it is necessary to consider two factors: the media pages and the target audience.
+ On the media, criteria of evaluation include: the number of media pages on climate change communication in Vietnam; number of posts; The number of people accessing the article (Reach) is reflected in the amount of interaction with the article (Reaction) and the ability to spread the message of the message (Viral); content and purpose of communication; expressive form. The criteria of interactions with the article and the ability to spread the article is expressed through likes, share and leave comments.
+ On the subject of communication (Facebook users), the criteria of effectiveness assessment is the awareness and action transformation for people receiving information communication climate via Facebook. This criteria is assessed by criteria sub-systems: the popularity of the facts of climate change on Facebook network; ability of updating, interacting and joining of users through communication channels; the credibility of the informations climate change communication via Facebook; content, purpose and form of communication
Currently, in Vietnam, there are about 15 fanpages of the most popular climate change media, two of which are selected are the National Meteorological and Hydrographic Center fanpage and Turn off the light turn on the ideas fanpage. Because these are two typical fanpages with large and frequent followers in Vietnam.
Ⅲ. Results and analysis
1. Current status of climate change communication via Facebook in Vietnam
A. The fanpages about climate change communication on Facebook in Vietnam
According to statistics of We are social, no fanpage related to climate change in the 10 fanpage of Vietnam has the largest track. There are about 15 fanpages on climate change in Vietnam. Research showed that high interactivity fanpages were real events, sharing videos, eye-catching photos, quality articles. Low interactivity fanpages were primarily due to the distance between two postings is too long or non-quality posts, less use of effective forms of communication such as video or images.
Table 1. Fanpage of some organizations related to climate change (updated: August 2017)
B. Assessing the effectiveness of some climate change communication fanpages in Vietnam
1) The National Meteorological Hydrographic Center fanpage
- Number of Articles: In the period from 01/06/2017 to 22/06/2017 on the fanpage had 38 articles, the main content of the articles was the warning information disaster. Therefore, these articles also had the highest number of interested people.
- Interaction with the articles: This fanpage had a fairly large audience, with 45,690 views. However, the amount of interaction depends on the type of presentation, the content and the time spent posting. Update time affects the level of interaction of those posts, as users are using the Facebook to update information. The result of the survey showed that articles were updated at around 20 – 21h daily had a higher interaction than other time.
Content and purpose of articles:
Fig. 1. The content and purpose of articles on the National Meteorological Hydrographic Center fanpage
2) Turn off light on ideas fanpage
Fanpage “Turn off the light, turn on the ideas” is a page which transmits the message "Decision Cleanly for green Hanoi". Message transmission is the motto of this fanpage. Target audience of this fanpage is the youngest group of users, young, dynamic, receptive new, creative.
- Number of Articles: Statistics from fanpage "Turn off the light turn on the ideas" from 1/1/2018 to 30/04/2018 had 76 articles that divided by different content and forms.
- Update Time: In Vietnam, Facebook users usually check the information early 10-15 minutes at about 6 – 8am, 11am –1pm, and from 7h30pm to 10h30pm. This Fanpage is applying the correct time to update the article according to the user's habits. Most of posts were updated during this time period (> 72%), so they already generated a good amount of interaction. - Shared content: Information content accounted for the highest proportion (40.86%), Education accounted for 35.65%, the event accounted for 16.52%, the lowest was the share of writing (8.97%).
3) Assessing the effectiveness of climate change communication from Facebook users in Vietnam
- The popularity of climate change events on Facebook: The online survey showed that most people already knew the information about the climate change on Facebook. However, the number of people who could participate in the activities and the specific events on Facebook was low, only 13% respondents while 77% respondents have known but not joined. It mean that the effectiveness of climate change communication in changing the behavior via the Facebook is not high.
- The ability to interact and update information: People get to know about climate change mainly through TV and Facebook. However, Facebook has the level of interactivity and participation easier than other media. This is the advantage of Facebook in climate change communication.
- The credibility of climate change communication information on Facebook: According to online survey results, although it was easy to interact and participate, Facebook still brought the characteristics of the social network that the contents are updated by the members and the informations were not evaluated at high level of credibility. While the level of reliability of other media such as radio, books specialized were quite good.
- The content and purpose of climate change communication: Content and purpose of climate change communication on Facebook in Vietnam were various. According to the results of the survey, the main contents were real events for the purpose of transmitting the message and calling for action (61.2% of respondents), information on climate change such as status, causes, impacts accounts for 32.2%. Other contents were lower proportion, for example, education and guide responses to climate change and disaster risk reduction (32.2%) and sharing articles from other fanpages (23.1%).
- The form of climate change communication on Facebook: 61.2% of respondents said that video was the most attractive form for Facebook users because it could show content visually, lively and more understandable than other forms.
Fig. 2. The forms of the article and the interaction on the fanpage Turn off the lights turn on the idea
Fig. 3. Interactive ability of Facebook users with climate change communication media in Vietnam
Unit: percentage of respondents (%)
Fig. 4. The credibility of Facebook users for the media of climate change communication in Vietnam
4) General assessment
The results of assessment several fanpages and feedback of Facebook users found that climate change communication on Facebook in Vietnam was not effective, showing: The number of posts was not much.
Low engagement: views, likes, shares, media reviews on many fanpages were low
- The forms of climate change communication were quite various: has exploited 4/5 expressive features of the Facebook network such as events, photos, videos, scholarly articles. The forms of fanpage started to tend using communication forms more effective (photos and video). However, many other forms of effective communication such as livestream or creating groups to exchange information on climate change were not used to fully educate and change behavior more strongly.
- Content of communication: The contents of communication were mainly information on education, providing, updating the information on climate change, the actual events. However, the lack of academic articles on climate change (causes, consequences, impacts). Many important events or studies on climate change were not published and updated on Facebook. Therefore, the objects of communication (Facebook users) did not get and understand fully about the issues of climate change. This affected the awareness and transformation of the actions of Facebook user.
- Purpose of communication: The main purposes of fanpage about climate change in Vietnam were usually warning, educating, providing information, calling for action. The purpose is quite diverse, but there are still lack of fanpage of the prestigious agencies sharing scholarly articles or scientific articles on climate change.
- The effectiveness of climate change communication for Facebook users is not high: Climate change communication on Facebook was mainly to the extent that people knew the information, not yet attract the attention and participation of people, or the information was not reliable enough for the users. As a result, the media actually does not deliver the expected results.
C. The cause of ineffective climate change communication via Facebook in Vietnam
- The contents were not really useful to Facebook users. The interactions of the posts (such as like, share, comment ...) were not high enough to meet the needs of users or not really affect the life of Facebook users. In fact, the articles on dangerous warnings, weather alerts, or weather areas on the National Meteorological Service fanpage attracted large followers and higher interaction rates due to direct impact the life of the user.
The format of the article was not optimal. The use of text articles (including article contributions from other reputable sources) made the articles more accessible to the reader. Because the EdgeRank algorithm will not prioritize such articles and cause a sense of boredom to the reader, there will be less interaction.
- Post infrequently More than 90% of users will not return to the fanpage if they do not post regularly. With the algorithm of Facebook, the regular post will help keep the user stay on the fanpage, then it will be easy for communication, education, change the Facebook user's perception.
- Posting time was not reasonable. They posted the articles at times when people were not resting. That was the reason of low interaction.
- Fan response rate was low Social network is a two-way interaction media, so only posting and not interacting with fan’s questions will be reduce the number of followers of fan pages.
Lack of content and titles that attracted the attention of Facebook users.
Ⅳ. Discussions
Nowaday, Facebook social network is developing and improving many of the remarkable features in the media. Therefore, this communication media should be promoted to convey the message of climate change and to interact with more people. In Vietnam, there was no survey and evaluation of climate change communication via Facebook. Although the research results have some limitations such as small sample size, short survey time, low number of selected fanpages. However, surveys and assessments indicated that climate change communication via social networks in Vietnam was not paid attention much. This reflected in low fanpages on climate change communication and not high effectiveness of communication fanpages (number of articles, the amount of interaction, monitoring, sharing, understanding and concern of the user for the internal related to climate change). Compared with previous studies, this study is an important result in assessing the current status, effectiveness and pointing out the causes of ineffective climate change communication via Facebook social network in Vietnam today. Research results also suggested that managers and communicators needed to take advantage of Facebook social network in climate change communication. On the other hand, it was necessary to study and implement solutions to improve the effectiveness of climate change communication in which focusing on communication via Facebook social network.
Ⅴ. Conclusions
The research results provided meaningful insights into climate change communication via the Facebook social network in Vietnam today. Online survey results and analysis indicated that the climate change communication via Facebook in Vietnam was not interested in by the users. The effectiveness of climate change communication fanpages was not high due to several reasons such as low fanpages; not high quality of the articles; not really useful contents to users; not optimal article format, post irregular and unreasonable post time; low fan response rate, lack of contents, the titles appeals to Facebook users. The study results also suggested the managers, the communicators of climate change should pay more attention and look for solutions to take advantage and improve the efficiency of using Facebook in climate change communication in Vietnam today. Based on the results of our current research, we will continue to survey and evaluate other climate change communication fanpages in order to find the solutions and improve the effectiveness of climate change communication fanpages via Facebook in Vietnam.
Acknowledgements
This study was carried out with the financial assistance obtained through the Study KOICA.
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