Global warming in the microblog era

This qualitative study examines whether microblogging illustrates or contradicts the longstanding notion that the Internet allows for greater public participation in important issues, thus potentially expanding public sphere. The study analyzes 5 years of tweets about climate change between ExxonMobil and Greenpeace USA using a new hybrid, or blended methodology that combines Kenneth Burke's rhetorical analysis of cluster-agons with eight physical attributes of the Internet that Marshall Poe identified as influential in pushing societies and ideas in new directions. Clusters are also examined using Grace Poh Lyn's reflexive analysis. Additionally, the analysis also considers the use of agitative and control strategies, discursive tensions between freedom and domination, and the rhetorical use of public vernaculars. Analysis of the tweets reveals that business organizations that at first glance or in theory seem to be at odds actually share common discursive practices. They communicate about the same issues at the same or similar times using the same language for the same primary purpose-survival of the organization-while giving the impression that they are working for the good of their respective publics for environmental causes or the bottom line, or even both. The researcher concludes that although there are specific cases of microblogging in which the public benefits to some extent, those gains are either very short-lived or are more likely to exist in theory rather than practice due to the fluid nature of microblogging as well as continued organizational missteps which I call "corporate ejacking."