It’s Time to See the Forest for the Trees – Rhetorical Argumentation about Forest Use on Twitter

Abstract

Twitter used to be a hotbed of topical societal debates. In this paper, we analyze discussions about Finnish forest use and conservation on Twitter during a five-month period in 2020–2021. By looking at the factual contents and the ways claims are justified, we ask how tweeters construct their arguments. The materials were analyzed by paying attention to background categories, content topic and style, and any additional information brought up by participants. Our findings show that a polarization between economic and ecological worldviews can be seen in Twitter debates, and that the participants use various methods to justify their stances. As a result, we also identified ways in which ordinary people take part in this debate by commenting, reframing, retweeting and sending their own photos as evidence. (In 2022, Twitter was bought by Elon Musk, who later changed its name to “X.” This research was conducted before these changes, and thus we use the original name.)