El análisis del discurso en el cambio climático. Análisis de sentimiento en negacionistas

Rosa Muñoz-Luna

doi:10.14198/dissoc.30072

Authors

Rosa Muñoz-Luna Universidad de Málaga, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1730-3430

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/dissoc.30072

Keywords:

Sentiment analysis, climate change, emotion, language, digital communication

Abstract

This article examines the use of sentiment analysis as a methodological tool for studying written discourse on climate change in digital media. Drawing on a review of the literature focused on emotional language and discursive strategies in climate communication, the study analyses six texts published on blogs and other online platforms by authors Xavier Sala-i-Martín and Antonio Uriarte. The tool used for analysis is Lingmotif, which quantifies the emotional load of texts by identifying positive, negative, and neutral lexical items, and classifying sentences according to affective polarity. Following a theoretical overview of sentiment analysis and a justification for selecting these two authors due to their sceptical stance towards the climate consensus, the article presents and discusses the results. The analysis reveals notable differences both among the texts of each author and between their respective discursive styles. Sala-i-Martín's texts exhibit a predominantly negative tone with a high emotional load, often using irony, sarcasm, or disparaging expressions. Uriarte, by contrast, adopts a more explanatory and formal style, with lower affective intensity and more restrained subjectivity. The discussion highlights discursive patterns linked to strategies that challenge mainstream climate narratives, and raises questions about their potential influence on audiences. Future research should aim to expand the sample and include comparative studies with climate advocacy discourse, in order to assess how emotional charge affects message reception. This study underscores the relevance of sentiment analysis as a valuable tool for exploring the affective dimension of climate discourse.

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