Report on the CCVision Network Meeting 2026

Date: 23 June 2026
Venue: University of Mannheim, B6 29
Format: Hybrid (in-person and online)
Host Institution: Chair of Machine Learning, Data and Web Science Group, University of Mannheim
Organizing Team: Katharina Prasse, Anastasia Kanat, Margret Keuper

About the Network

The Climate Change Vision (CCVision) Network is an international, interdisciplinary research community dedicated to the visual dimension of climate change. The network brings together researchers from fields including computer science, computational social science, geography, and communication and media studies, spanning all career stages—from doctoral researchers to established professors.

Meeting Programme

The fourth annual network meeting brought together researchers from Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. The programme featured two thematic panels, a spotlight session with network updates, and an interactive methods meeting.

Panel 1

Chaired by Stefanie Walter (TU Munich), the first panel focused on the multimodal analysis of climate discourse on social media. Presentations explored methods of automated image recognition and showcased findings from different research projects.

Speakers:

• Nadezhda Ozornina (LMU Munich): Analysing Multimodal Climate Discourse with Computational Methods: Insights from the KLIMA-MEMES Project
• Shijia Zhou (LMU Munich): What Media Frames Reveal About Stance: A Dataset and Study about Memes in Climate Change Discourse
• Caroline Gardam (Queensland University of Technology): Exploring the Image Machine's Clusters: Multimodality and Visual Signatures Aligned with Climate Hoax Hashtags

Panel 2

Chaired by Travis G. Coan (University of Exeter), the second panel extended the discussion by considering additional analytical dimensions. Beyond image content, presentations addressed the factual accuracy of statements, positioning within networks, and the completeness of the underlying datasets.

Speakers:

• Isaac Bravo (TU Munich): Semantic (Mis)Alignment, Climate Misinformation, and Engagement on Social Media: The Case of Twitter/X
• Carly Lubicz-Zaorski (Queensland University of Technology): A Network Speaks 1000 Words: Visualising Division and Delay in Australia's Renewable Energy Transition, and Beyond
• Jill Hopke (DePaul University): Is Climate Journalism in Decline (and Other Questions)? A U.S. Perspective on the Importance of Sampling

Spotlight Talks

Brief insights into ongoing research were provided by:

• Antal Wozniak (University of Liverpool)
• Travis G. Coan (University of Exeter)
• Bruno Takahashi (Michigan State University)

Methods Meeting

During the methods meeting, self-organized, cross-disciplinary working groups addressed the topics of validation and sampling. Participants discussed methodological challenges and explored differences in approaches across disciplines.

Impact and Outlook

The meeting strengthened the exchange between quantitative and qualitative research on climate-related visual communication, fostered international collaborations, and created opportunities for joint publications and shared datasets. In particular, the focused methodological discussions on validation and sampling enabled a concrete exchange of experiences across projects. The hybrid format also allowed participants from overseas to actively contribute to the discussions.

Acknowledgements

We would like to sincerely thank the Mannheim Center for Data Science (MCDS) and the Chair of Machine Learning (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Margret Keuper) for their generous support. Without their contributions, this network meeting would not have been possible in its current format.

CCVision Network – Chair of Machine Learning, Data and Web Science Group, University of Mannheim