Module 1: Understanding sustainability communication content

Lesson 1.1: Sustainability communication content

AI-aided content analysis of sustainability communication

nils.holmberg@iko.lu.se

Sustainability communication content

• Define sustainability content both formally and functionally
• Formal content reflects environmental or social responsibility themes
• Functional content supports branding, compliance, and stakeholder engagement
• Communication influences perceptions of credibility and authenticity
• Dual analysis reveals intent, structure, and audience impact

Online content sampling

• Sampling method influences research reliability and validity
• Random sampling is ideal but hard to apply in web contexts
• Purposive sampling targets relevant or contrasting examples
• Strategic sampling balances focus and generalizability
• Design choices must minimize bias in content selection

Expectations about sustainability communication

• Choose between qualitative, quantitative, or mixed approaches
• Descriptive analysis explores patterns; explanatory seeks causes
• Linguistic analysis compares tone, terms, and rhetorical strategies
• Research begins with well-formed questions and hypotheses
• Methodological clarity improves interpretability and rigor

Find online sustainability communication

• Select organizations aligned with your research objectives
• Study one or compare multiple for contrast and depth
• Target official websites as curated communication sources
• Identify and extract sustainability-related URLs
• Build a dataset from key pages like “CSR” or “Sustainability”

Convert multimodal web pages to PDF

• Use browser print-to-PDF to capture entire web pages
• Preserves images, layout, and static design elements
• Enables analysis of multimodal communication forms
• Quick, user-friendly method requiring no programming
• Limitation: videos and interactive elements not captured

Setting up an initial content database

• Ensure all collected content is stored in an accessible format
• Local storage is easy but lacks shareability and backup
• Cloud solutions like Google Drive support collaboration
• GitHub adds version control and traceability benefits
• A well-structured archive supports long-term analysis

Organize communication content in folders

• Separate folders allow comparisons between organizations
• Normalize filenames and paths for consistent processing
• Folder structure simplifies automation and batch analysis
• PDFs often need OCR or text extraction for further use
• Good organization supports transparency and reproducibility