Unveiling unseen climate practices on Instagram

Authors

  • Niina Uusitalo University of Tampere. Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, University of Tampere

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2238-7714.no.2020.171996

Keywords:

Climate practices, Human connection, Instagram, Visual studies, Photography

Abstract

Climate change is often portrayed through stereotypical, extreme or controversial messages, with the role of human agency attached to consumption and demonstrations. Such depictions can be demotivating and cause issue fatigue. There is a need to broaden and elaborate our understanding of human connections to climate change. The aim of this paper is to identify a wide array of climate practices expressed by social media users. An empirical study of 42 Finnish ecological Instagram accounts was conducted. The textual and visual contents of climate-related posts were qualitatively analyzed to identify climate practices and the role visual images play in these representations. Six types of climate practices were identified in the data: detaching, reforming, transilluminating, persevering, caring and consolidating. The visualization of climate practices should be expanded in the media to broaden the understanding of potential human agency in the climate crisis.

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Author Biography

  • Niina Uusitalo, University of Tampere. Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, University of Tampere

    Ph.D. in Media and Communication from Tampere University, Finland. She is cur­rently working on her post doctoral re­search project Envisioning climate change, which studies the ways media us­ers visualize climate change and related emotions. As part of the study, the find­ings are also visualized through photog­raphy projects. Uusitalo's research inter­ests include visual culture, climate change visualization, promotional culture, partic­ipation online, technologies of govern­ance, discourse analysis and media litera­cies.

References

Novos Olhares Vol. 9 N. 1

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Published

2020-07-10

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2020)

Section

DOSSIÊ

License

Proposta de Aviso de Direito Autoral Creative Commons

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How to Cite

Uusitalo, N. (2020). Unveiling unseen climate practices on Instagram. Novos Olhares, 9(1), 120-129. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2238-7714.no.2020.171996