Global warming communicative actions of publics in Türkiye: Utilizing fuzzy rule based system

Abstract

The effectiveness of government policies and environmental initiatives to mitigate global warming relies heavily on public support, which is closely tied to public perception and awareness. Despite the scientific evidence communicated, the public remains reluctant to take preventive measures against global warming. The aim of the paper is to investigate the communicative actions of publics proposed as in the situational theory of problem solving to understand publics' communicative actions towards global warming. The paper utilizes a fuzzy rule-based system approach to analyze the communicative actions of publics to reveal non-linear relationships; whereas previous studies mostly used linear statistical analysis. The paper provides a deeper understanding into the interplay between problem recognition, constraint recognition, and involvement in shaping information behavior. The results show that the communicative actions of the publics are at a low-to-moderate level. The paper's interesting finding is the nonlinear effects of constraint recognition on communicative action about global warming. Contrary to the current literature, it was found out that the dominant factor that may convince public to start taking action towards global warming seems to be recognizing being constrained at a moderate level. Based on the results, it is suggested for policy makers and communication strategists to mitigate the negative outcomes of global warming by integrating environmental issues into education at all levels and collaborating with non-governmental organizations for national awareness campaigns which focus on increasing public problem recognition and involvement.

Keywords

• Situational theory of publics
• Public segments
• Communicative action
• Fuzzy rule-based system
• Global warming