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 paid to how top-polluting industries leverage health messaging to advance their agendas. This study investigates how the fossil fuel and agriculture industries construct and disseminate strategic health messages to shape public perception and influence policy processes. Using a large language model (LLM)–assisted text mining approach, this study analyzes published tweets from the American Petroleum Institute and the American Farm Bureau Federation. Preliminary findings suggest a two-dimensional typology of healthwashing, distinguishing between firm- and product-level claims and between direct and indirect forms through which corporations construct a health-positive image. This paper conceptualizes and categorizes an underexamined tactic—healthwashing—in Big Carbon’s social media messaging. It advances scholarship on climate obstruction and highlights the value of LLM-assisted text analysis for examining the evolving communication strategies of corporations.

Author

• Yutong Si, Columbia University
  Presenting Author