CLIMATE CHANGE REPRESENTATION AND AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ON AFGHAN FACEBOOK PAGES: A QUANTITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS
Abstract
Climate change cases significant environmental, economic, and social challenges in Afghanistan, yet little research has considered how climate-related issues are represented and engaged with on social media platforms. This study investigates climate change representation and audience engagement on Afghan Facebook pages through quantitative content analysis. A total of 60 climate-change-related Facebook posts published between January and September 2025 were collected from four major Afghan media organizations: TOLO News, Ariana News, Pajhwok News, and Shamshad News. The study was guided by Knowledge Gap Theory and Framing Theory and analyzed post characteristics, including topic, language, post type, media format, message tone, and audience engagement indicators.Descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, Mann–Whitney U tests, and Kruskal–Wallis tests were employed to analyze the data. The findings reveal that drought (56.7%) and flood-related issues (23.3%) dominated climate change communication on Afghan Facebook pages. Climate-related content was primarily communicated through image-based posts and negatively framed messages. Audience engagement varied considerably across posts, with video content generating the highest engagement levels. Significant relationships were found between post type and audience engagement (p = .005), language and audience engagement (p = .029), and message tone and audience engagement (p = .015). Dari-language posts and informative messages received significantly higher engagement than Pashto-language and negatively framed posts. However, no significant relationship was found between media organization and climate-change topic representation (p = .439).The study concludes that content format, language, and message tone play important roles in shaping audience engagement with climate-related information on Afghan Facebook pages. The findings contribute to the limited literature on climate communication in Afghanistan and provide practical implications for media organizations seeking to enhance public engagement with environmental issues through social media.