Frame Sequencing the Climate Change Online: An Analysis of Evolving Narratives on YouTube Video Data

Over the past decades, YouTube has become a central arena for public narratives where global risks, such as climate change, are increasingly framed for online audiences. We present empirical research conducted through a novel Framing Analysis approach, which we define “Frame Sequencing”, aimed at analysing large volumes of unstructured data, particularly valuable for qualitative and quantitative inquiries on audiovisual content online. Methodologically, we offer a replicable workflow aimed at a robust Framing Analysis on user-generated video data, showing how context evolution shapes the prominence and articulation of online communication on the platform. Finally, the proposed framework has been proven on YouTube platform following the discussed issue of climate change, where it insightfully highlighted the frame sequences on which a qualitative deepening has been carried out, leading to the acknowledgment of three evolving narratives portrayed by influential platform actors: Data room narratives; Science and call to action; and climate change political debate.