Personalising climate change—how activists from Fridays for Future visualise climate action on Instagram

Abstract

The visual communication of climate change by social movements has become an emerging subject of research in recent years. Much of the existing literature on visual climate change communication focuses on how environmental movements and protests are depicted by mainstream media outlets. This exploratory study examines the visual climate change communication by social movements themselves. Its focus is on one ‘new narrator’ in the mediated politics of climate change: Fridays for Future (FFF), arguably one of the most significant communicators of climate change. The research question seeks to understand how FFF activists narrate climate action through images posted on Instagram. I discuss examples from major branches of FFF and contribute to existing research by emphasising personalisation as a powerful tool in climate storytelling. The paper’s visual thematic analysis presents three themes that illustrate the personalisation of climate storytelling by FFF activists: localising the effects of global climate change, using performances to convey climate messages, and visualising contentious politics. The implications of this research further underpin the need to recognise climate activists as important actors in the visual communication of climate change.