Healthwashing on Social Media: Leveraging Large Language Models to Examine Big Carbon’s Health Messaging

• In Event: Communication, Narrative, and Framing in the Policy Process

Abstract

While extensive research has documented the tactics used by Big Carbon to obstruct climate action, less attention has been given to how top-polluting industries leverage health narratives to advance their agendas. Drawing on the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) and the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), this study investigates how the fossil fuel and animal agriculture industries construct and disseminate strategic health messaging to shape public perception and influence policy processes. Using text mining and social network analysis (SNA) assisted by large language models (LLMs), the study analyzes key narrative elements—such as settings, characters, and policy solutions—to examine how these industries frame themselves as aligned with the health sector or portray themselves as health-positive actors. It also explores the networked relationships among organizations, revealing how industry coalitions coordinate messaging strategies across sectors. This paper conceptualizes a lesser-known tactic—healthwashing—whereby industries exploit health narratives to divert attention from their broader environmental and public health harms. By analyzing both narrative components and coalition dynamics, the study contributes to the fields of climate and health policy and advances the understanding of climate obstruction through an LLM-assisted mixed-methods approach.

Author

• Yutong Si, Columbia University
  Presenting Author