Emerging visual narratives on the environmental crisis on Instagram
by Gemma San Cornelio, Sandra Martorell and Elisenda Ardèvol
In the face of the current climate crisis, environmental communication can contribute to providing new frames of understanding and promoting social change and positive citizen action. Through social media, on platforms like Instagram, concerned citizens embrace environmental communication activism ultimately reshaping the narratives regarding the climate crisis. These individuals, who we identify as both activists and environmental influencers, are challenging the established media narratives with their posts and stories, thus offering alternative narratives. Accordingly, this paper aims to elaborate an incipient characterization of a communicative agenda that includes the emerging elements of these visual narratives in social media as potentially able to engage citizens to take action in their ordinary lives.
Photography by @laurainwaterland