Abstract
Climate disinformation is not merely a byproduct of the digital ageit represents the latest expression of colonial logics of mediated authority. This research traces how climate denial and distortion in Africa cannot be understood apart from the infrastructures of British indirect rule, which historically governed “through” cultural intermediaries rather than “over” subjects. I define these contemporary dynamics as spirito-digital spaces: hybrid environments where spiritual authority and digital infrastructures intersect to shape knowledge, belief, and behavior. In the African context, these spaces emerge when religious, spiritual, and other cultural intermediaries employ platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp to frame climate narratives in religious or indigenous terms. The digital circulates the message, while the spiritual confers legitimacy. Drawing on the Model of Indirect Epistemic Domination, the study demonstrates how recruitment, localization, deflection, normalization, and exploitation, once used to entrench imperial power, are now reactivated in the everyday spread of climate disinformation. The analysis is based on 200 purposively sampled disinformation posts across eleven African states, combined with structural indices of religiosity, trust in science, education, and media access. Results reveal that religiosity strongly amplifies susceptibility (r ≈ 0.83), while media-access functions as a double-edged vector, broadening reach yet intensifying exposure. Regression modeling confirms that structural determinants of climate denialism in African spirito-digital spaces are not merely informational but deeply conditioned by colonial residues that continue to shape epistemic ecologies. This study situates climate disinformation as both an epistemological and environmental crisis, urging strategies that confront inherited structures of authority and belief.
Presenters
Essien Oku EssienPhD Candidate/Lecturer, Communication, Culture and Media Studies, Drexel University, Pennsylvania, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Human Impacts and Responsibility
KEYWORDS
Climate Disinformation, Spirito-Digital Spaces, Epistemic Model, Colonial Residues, Structure
