THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN SHAPING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

This quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational study explores moderate positive correlation between social media use and university students' perceptions of climate change in Pakistan, with the former positively predicting 20% variance in the later. A survey of 249 revealed that female university students use social media more than the male university students and also develop climate-related perceptions accordingly. However, there is no difference between the students with rural and urban ethnicities on the variables of social media use and university students’ climate-related perceptions.  The also proposed implications including promotion of critical thinking by educational institutions; focus on reliable content, fact-checking, equitable digital access, and localized contexts by the governments and NGOs; and partnerships among policymakers, academic institutions, and societal platforms for rational and effective climate communication and communal action to mitigate climate change in the countries like Pakistan.