Activism online: Exploring how crises are communicated visually in activism campaigns

Abstract

AbstractDuring the past years, activist movements have increasingly turned to social media to raise awareness and critically discuss current development and future scenarios. As a contribution to the discussion of new social movements and activism in the digital age, this study aims to explore and critically discuss how environmental risks and crisis are visually communicated in activism campaigns on Instagram, through a case study on Extinction Rebellion Sweden (XRsv). The study is delimited to the first 334 posts on XRsv's Instagram between November 14, 2018 and March 1, 2020. Methods used are interview and content analysis. In conclusion, XRsv has adopted aspects of design activism including visual tactics of Informing, Activating and Explaining. These three visual aspects are used by XRsv in an online context enabling interactivity and participatory actions, which in turn forms the core of design activism.