Exploring Reddit Discourse and Information Needs Surrounding Extreme Heat: Topic, Sentiment, and Engagement Analysis

As Canada's climate changes, extreme heat events have become more frequent, a trend that is expected to continue. Extreme heat can lead to several negative health outcomes, which disproportionately impact vulnerable populations. Evidence-based, equitable interventions are needed to inform and protect the public from the health effects. Effective communication can aid this effort to improve health outcomes by emphasizing the connection between health risks and climate change and empowering people to act. Machine learning has applications in understanding current attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and behaviors within the target audience for public health messaging. Machine learning analyses of social media data have elucidated user perceptions of heat events in the literature; however, research is limited with respect to social media user perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors related to extreme heat, particularly in the Canadian context. Analyzing Canadian social media discourse related to extreme heat will help to address this research gap and inform future research and communications to reduce the risks of extreme heat.

The purpose of this research is to better understand Canadian discourse and emotions related to extreme heat by examining social media (Reddit). Our objectives include (1) identifying common discussion topics, concerns, and questions related to extreme heat among Canadian Reddit users; (2) analyzing sentiment and emotional responses to extreme heat discussions; and (3) investigating the relationship between topics, sentiment, and engagement for posts.

We collected data using the Reddit application programming interface (API), retrieving posts from 30 Canada-specific subreddits between February 12, 2023, and February 11, 2024, based on a predefined set of heat- and climate-related keywords. Posts and comments were structured as hierarchical tree models, with text consolidated into documents for analysis. Topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and emotion analysis were conducted; engagement was assessed using net upvote scores to gauge community approval.

The analysis of 607 Reddit posts from 15,366 users revealed that discussions about extreme heat were most frequently centered around the keyword "heat," which appeared in 82.5% (n=501) of the posts and 81.1% (n=25,253) of the comments. Topic analysis identified key themes related to heating and cooling costs, weather records, air conditioning, and health impacts, while sentiment and emotion analyses showed varying levels of positivity and negativity across subreddits.

Our findings present an initial snapshot into Canadian perspectives and information needs about extreme heat in Canada. In our sample, discussions on Reddit about extreme heat in Canada are dominated by concerns over heating and cooling costs, weather patterns, and personal adaptation strategies, reflecting both practical and policy-related challenges. Additionally, sentiment and emotion analyses suggest significant regional differences in public perception, which may be useful for informing health and risk messaging initiatives to better protect Canadians from the adverse health effects of climate change.