MASTERS IN COMMUNICATION SCIENCES

New Media

The Impact of Instagram on the Growth of Social Activism

Movements: The case of Extinction Rebellion

Professor: Paulo Frias

Students: Cristiana Sousa, Danilo Galvão, Emiliya Malets, Pedro Terrantez

20 January 2021
Abstract:

Nowadays, climate change activism is becoming more and more popular within the younger
generation. With the rise of social media, some of the world’s most known apps started to act
like main vehicles for social organisations to spread and promote their messages about
emergent issues in our current society such as global warming. Our study aims to examine
how social movements use social media to raise awareness about global warming solutions.

Research Question: ​What is the impact of social media on the spread and growth of global
warming awareness across the world?

Our hypotheses: Social media is very efficient on the spread and growth of global warming
awareness across the world.

Keywords: ​climate change, extinction rebellion, global warming, social activism, social
media

Introduction

The latest biggest achievement on global warming action was the Paris Agreement
signed by 195 nations in December of 2015. The deal was celebrated all over the world, but
not much has changed. Since then, climate change and global warming activism has become
more and more popular within the younger generations, putting the topic of global warming
on the center of the table. Around the world, students and individuals from younger
generations started to march, as part of ongoing global strikes, to protest the inaction of
governments on climate change.​1 Even though movements that fight for environmental
change have always existed, nowadays, they are very different, mainly because of
technology.
Social Media, like never before, has had a big and important role in the organization,
spread of information and promotion of messages about emergent society issues within the
first generation to have lived their entire lives under the pressure of climate change. This
powerful tool has given young people the needed attention to grow the movement and keep
1
Nilsen, E. (2019). The New Face of Climate Activism is young, angry – and effective. Vox.
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/9/10/20847401/sunrise-movement-climate-change-activist-mil
lennials-global-warming
on making it work. At the same time the discussion of ideas, sharing opinions and engaging
with content related to global warming was also facilitated.

Those two (social media and activism) have had a strong relation since 2010, with the
Arab Spring, and 2013 with the rise of #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and protests.​2 In both of
them, social media was a big instrument for the reasons stated above. Zeynep Tufekci, a
sociologist who has analyzed how social media becomes essential to social movements,
argued that in the modern world, the one where technology rules,​3 “modern networked
movements can scale up quickly and take care of all sorts of logistical tasks without building
any substantial organizational capacity before the first protest or march”.​4
With platforms such as Messenger, Slack, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, a lot of
movements and initiatives around the world started to emerge online. As the movements
gained recognition, the world has seen a rise in public figures that raise awareness to the
cause. Some studies have already proven the importance of social media on activism while
others have explored the relationship between social media and public awareness of a certain
cause. As Mavrodieva (2019) affirms several studies stated that “sharing information through
social media can raise awareness and encourage more environmentally-friendly behavior in
people”.​5

In this paper, our aim is to cross the concepts of global warming, social media and
social activism in order to examine how social movements use social media to raise
awareness about the global warming topic and notice if social activism is effective. Besides
approaching the main concepts briefly, we will analyze three Extinction Rebellion instagram
accounts from three different countries: Portugal, Spain and Poland. Extinction Rebellion is a
social movement that demands action on the fight of climate change. This analysis will give
us the opportunity to understand what we proposed to do.

2
Reid, A., Sehl, K. (2020). Genuine Social Media Activism: A guide for going beyond the hashtag.
Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-activism/
3
Hu, J. (2020). The Second Act of Social Media Activism. The New Yorker.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-second-act-of-social-media-activism
4
Tufekci, Z. (2017). Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. Yale
University Press.
5
Mavrodieva, Aleksandrina V., Rachman, Okky K., Harahap, Vito B. (2019). Role of Social Medial as
a Soft Power Tool in Raising Public Awareness and Engagement in Adressing Climate Change. Keio
University, Fujisawa, Japan.
 1. Social Media

1.1. Definition
Nowadays, social media is considered to be a vehicle produced by the internet that
allows several users to be connected and, at the same time, gives a possibility to share the
content between its users. In order to be characterised as social media, websites and
applications must provide interaction between people, allow them to share information, and
encourage collaborative participation. Thus, some examples of social media are presented as
follows: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, forums, blogs, etc.
In the early 90s, the first online system ​BBS (Bullet Board System) was created. It
allowed users only to exchange their messages and share files. However, it was only in 1997,
when the first social network appeared. ​Six Degrees brought us the possibility to create
profiles, add people and share content.​6
Below Table represents the list of the main social networks and the time when they
were created.

Livejournal 1999

Friendster 2002

LinkedIn 2003

MySpace 2003

Orkut 2004

Facebook 2004

Twitter 2006

Tumblr 2007

6
Patel, N.. (2020). Social Media: Complete Guide to Social Media.
https://neilpatel.com/br/blog/midias-sociais-guia/
 Instagram 2010

Google+ 2011

1.2. Social Network VS Social Media

Some people confuse the two terms as if they were one, but there are some differences.
Social media provides interactive communication between users, while social networks are
created in a way so that users can share common interests, in addition to having the main
purpose of connecting people. When analyzing the concepts, one can associate social
networks as a type of social media.
Social media brings together different platforms such as forums, blogs, videos, etc. In
other words, it is a place where you can spread information to someone. In order to better
distinguish between the two options, we can conclude that social media helps users get
together through technology, and social networks reinforce that connection. Today, in
addition to expanding the company-client relationship and increasing advertising campaigns
for a specific product, social media is also considered as the target of several discussions such
as social media and privacy; and social media as the tool to initiate protests or public
demonstrations.

1.3​.​ The Impact of Social Media on Society

Social media, like everything else in the world, has positive and negative sides. It is
an instrument that can be used to influence people. Furthermore, it helps to connect people
quickly and easily. ​It would be too small to think that social media happens only in the virtual
world, especially when we are in a time when the real and the virtual walks side by side.​7
Nowadays, media such as newspapers, printed magazines, radio and television are
still solid competitors to social media, as they are still relevant as vehicles of communication
and propagation of information. However, these media no longer have instant information
such as the internet. Social media, along with their networks, have users who are working day

7
​Gnipper, P., (2018). ​Evolution of social networks and their impact on society: Part 2.​ Canal
Tech.
https://canaltech.com.br/redes-sociais/a-evolucao-das-redes-sociais-e-seu-impacto-na-socieda
de-parte-2-108116/
and night to spread the information in a more democratic and universal way. For example,
there are news that come out first on Instagram or Twitter because a person passed by on the
street, saw an event, and published it. Simple as that. And even so, media outlets reuse it to
pass on, thus being guided by social networks. In 2018, just one comment from a celebrity on
Twitter was enough for Snapchat's fall on the U.S. stock exchange. This is the real and the
virtual world really walking side by side.​8
A few decades ago, if we needed information, we would have to look for it in books,
encyclopedias, newspapers, etc. Today, it is enough just to type something on Google and we
will already have a range of information about what we are looking for. Some people say that
society is more lazy, because social media already details everything with just a touch.
Sometimes, people even forget about Google itself and consult other users on WhatsApp, or
Facebook, asking how to do something: a paper plane, for example.
A phenomenon that has been widely observed by researchers is the so-called "echo
chamber". It is the situation, where a user is increasingly closed with ideas that are in line
with his taste, instead of expanding his horizons with new ideas, leaving him more and more
intolerant. Several studies around the world have confirmed that users, especially of
Facebook, close themselves in communities of their interests, which ends up generating
segregation and polarization. A great example of this “echo chamber” was the idea that the
Earth was flat in the middle of the 21st century, and that it was gaining more strength by
sharing the same thing exhaustively. Even so, other studies indicate that many people are
realizing the destructive capacity of these bubbles and have already started to get out of the
situation. In the same way these people use the platforms to make complaints and to release
ideas in a way that the traditional press does not do with the same effectiveness.
In an interview for the CanalTech website, Maria Augusta Ribeiro, a specialist in
digital behavior and netnography, and manager of the Belicosa website, said that social
networks are powerful in transforming behaviors that move between the real and the virtual.
"The speed of communications carried out over the internet forced us in some way to relate
through social networks, given the feeling of lack of time generated; we send voice messages
via WhatsApp as if they were phone calls; we wish our colleagues 'Facebook happy birthday'
like a hug, and we believe that we are loved because more people like our selfies on

8
​Gnipper, P., (2018). ​Evolution of social networks and their impact on society: Part 2.​ Canal
Tech.
https://canaltech.com.br/redes-sociais/a-evolucao-das-redes-sociais-e-seu-impacto-na-socieda
de-parte-2-108116/
Instagram ". Even so, she makes reservations about society being worse with the advent of
social networks: "access to information can generate a feeling that society, as a whole, is
worse. Because we have never seen so many cases of pedophilia, bizarre images and clueless
people publishing things that shouldn't be on the internet ". Furthermore, she adds that what
we do with this access to information is what transforms us.​9

1.4. Instagram
Instagram is one of the most widely used online social networks in the world. It
initially appeared to share photos in the “polaroid” style, and today it also supports videos,
paid advertisements, and the creation of commercial profiles for marketing products. This
application allows you to connect to your phone's camera and let users publish their videos,
photos and broadcast in real time what they are doing at that moment.
The name "instagram'' is the combination of the words “instant", "camera" and "telegram",
that is, a telegram of instant images, and was created by businessmen Kevin Systrom and
software engineer Mike Kriger. According to the Hoostsuite website, which allows Instagram
statistics to be counted, approximately 4.2 billion posts are liked per day, and in the year of
release, it was downloaded more than 1 million times in just one day. According to surveys
conducted by the Statista website, the country that most consumes Instagram is the United
States, with approximately 130 million users; next comes India with 100 million people, and
third comes Brazil with 91 million. A function that expanded the use of the application on a
daily basis was the creation of “stories”, where the user posts a photo or video for a limited
time, and disappears after 24 hours of posting. This function, for its simplicity and for
providing fun, generated a 37% increase in the use of the social network for one hour a day.
Even so, Instagram is still behind WhatsApp (80% of daily use) and Facebook Messenger
(38% of daily use).​10
Currently, Instagram launched the shopping function, which allows users to connect to an
e-commerce website and also to a Facebook catalog, so that the user can create direct links to
the products shown in publications. In 2019, Instagram received US$ 20 billion in advertising
alone, exceeding YouTube's revenue, which reached US$ 15.1 billion with ads. According to
the website Statista, activism and influencer marketing raised approximately US$ 2 billion in

9
Gnipper, P.. (2018). ​Evolution of social networks and their impact on society: Part 3.​ CanalTech.
https://canaltech.com.br/redes-sociais/a-evolucao-das-redes-sociais-e-seu-impacto-na-sociedade-par
te-3-109324/>
10
Ribeiro W.. (2020). Instagram turns 10 years old as an activism platform. Poder360.
https://www.poder360.com.br/midia/instagram-completa-10-anos-como-plataforma-de-ativismo/
2020 alone, which doubled the revenue related to the year 2017, and the number of posts
exceeded six billion in the last year.
Initially, instagram only worked on the iOS system, however, a year after its launch, it
was made available for Android, achieving such a huge success that Facebook creator Mark
Zuckerberg bought it for 1US $ billion. Zuckerberg's next step was to buy the Snapchat app,
as he simply couldn't copy all of its main functions to Instagram. The success was so
overwhelming, that the same functions were incorporated into both WhatsApp and Facebook.
Today, because of these functions, Instagram has 25 million corporate profiles, more than 1
million advertisers that reach 200 million users daily.​11
Below is a graph showing the dissemination of information on the main social networks
during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020:

1.5. Activism on Instagram

Initially developed for entertainment, today Instagram has become too politicized.
With users' freedom to express their thoughts, the platform is now increasingly used as a
political space. With the passing of some world events, among them the revolts involving the
Black Lives Matter group, or the death of George Floyd in the United States; the accounts of
activist groups increased the number of followers in a few days, leaving several users
concerned about the direction the app is taking.
Civil rights organizations are criticizing both Instagram and Facebook for
proliferating hate speech and fake news, and also for impacting young people's mental health,
as access to images of violence and obscure content was very easy. The application tried to
hide the number of likes from users and warn about the content of the images, which did not
work. Instagram grows too much with its live streams. Function widely used to gather

11
Ribeiro W.. (2020). Instagram turns 10 years old as an activism platform. Poder360.
https://www.poder360.com.br/midia/instagram-completa-10-anos-como-plataforma-de-ativismo/
followers, allowing an exchange of information in real time and serving as a lever for
companies and institutions. For example, politicians during their campaigns often broadcast
and debate with their followers while they are either in the office, or attending an event. In
addition, profile owners hire digital marketing services to boost publications and attract
followers, which can generate a good profit at the end of the month, depending on the amount
invested in the boost.
According to Professor Massimo Di Felice, the leader of a activism research group on the
internet and democracy of social networks at the University of São Paulo, USP, on a
interview to the “Folha de São Paulo” newspaper said that today's generation, who was born
on social networks, seeks to experience and not stand still listening to explanations. Since
Instagram provides the experience of a small ecosystem on social networks, according to the
Professor, what makes the app more attractive for this type of idea, is that the image
dominates the words and it is not possible to polarize it. So, networks are created to produce
the change. The spread of misinformation shows the lack of maturity, knowledge and
ingenuity of young people within social media activism.​12
Currently, online activism built within social networks, can be good on the one hand with
regard to education and awareness. However, fraud, hate speech and the dissemination of
false information can be fed. On Instagram, just a simple hashtag on an image can be seen
around the world in an instant by millions of people. Because of this, several agencies
instigate campaigns on social networks to reach a common denominator.
For example, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, etc; within Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
etc. they expanded their networks, gaining millions of followers in less than a week. Some of
these campaigns even “force” governments to rethink their laws or make important decisions.
Such campaigns, when done correctly, without inciting violence or spreading false
information, are perfect for seeking support in a common cause, such as the sustainability and
reuse of products that harm nature. Thompson (1998) addresses the issue of organizing
groups fed by the spread of false / true information very well:​13

12
Balbi, C.. (2020). How instagram took off from egotrip to become an activist platform. Folha de São
Paulo.
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/2020/11/entenda-como-o-instagram-se-descolou-da-egotrip-p
ara-virar-uma-plataforma-ativista.shtml
13
​ ago, Gabriela, S., Baptista, Jandré, C., (2009). Activism in digital social networks: forms
Z
of participation in collective actions in cyberspace. Verse and Reverse, vol. 23, n.52.
<http://www.revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/versoereverso/article/view/5792/3039>
“We are dealing here with forms of collective action that are stimulated and fed by images,
actions and mediated expressions. These forms can vary: from relatively diffuse groups of
individuals with affinities of interests and ways of life, on the one hand, to well-organized
social movements and with well-articulated objectives, on the other. In many cases, these
forms of collective action seek support from different sources: the role of the media is one of
the sources of elements that provoke and sustain the concerted actions of individuals.”​14
Therefore, more specific studies are needed to better understand the gathering of people
on social networks in order to spread information that matters with a certain objective, and
why you want to impose an idea so that everyone thinks the same way, from the same angle,
etc. However, activism within social media is necessary to make people expand their
thoughts and attention to the world around them and what must be done to improve the
quality of life for everyone.

2. Global Warming
2.1. Definition and its impact on society
Over the past centuries, discussions around the topic of global warming have increased
and the concept took over not only newspapers and scientific magazines, but social media
platforms. With global temperatures that arose at an alarming rate, a new generation of young
adults start to demand actions from their politicians.​15

As Khandekar et al affirm, before the final years of the 20th century and the beginning
of the 21st century, studies about global warming were just a scientific problem.​16 It was
thanks to Joseph Fourier that the world got to know the meaning of global warming.
According to Khandekar et al, Joseph introduced the explanation of this phenomenon: “the
concept that the earth’s atmosphere acts somewhat like the glass of a greenhouse, letting
through the sunlight (shortwave light rays) while retaining a portion of the longwave
radiation emanating from the earth’s surface”.​17 Later in history the National Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) argued that global warming occurs “when carbon dioxide (CO2)
and other air pollutants and greenhouse gases collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight

14
​Zago, Gabriela, S., Baptista, Jandré, C., (2009). ​Activism in digital social networks: forms
of participation in collective actions in cyberspace.​ Verse and Reverse, vol. 23, n.52.
<http://www.revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/versoereverso/article/view/5792/3039>
15
​Urry, J. (2011). Climate change and society. Cambridge, Uk: Polity Press
16
Khandekar, M.L; Murty, T. S; Chittibabu. P. (2005). The Global Warming Debate: A review of the
state of Science.
17
Ibid.
and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface”.​18 In a normal state, the
radiation would be able to escape into the sun, but all of the pollutants end up trapping the
heat and causing the rise of temperatures. It is important to note that, even though greenhouse
gases do play a role on the rise of temperatures, some of them are actually necessary to the
planet . Le Treut and Somerville et al say that “the Earth’s greenhouse effect warms the
surface of the planet. Without the natural greenhouse effect, the average temperature at
earth’s surface would be below the freezing point of water”.​19 On a simpler note, it can be
explained as the process of long-term heating which has a negative impact on our Earth.

The NRDC claims that “over the past 50 years, the average global temperature has
increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts see the trend is accelerating: All
but one of the 16 hottest years in Nasa’s 134-year record have occurred since 2000”.​20 Karl et
al, argues that the rapid and high increase in temperatures is human-induced changes in
atmospheric composition​21​. Human activities such as burning of fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas,
as well as widespread deforestation, created a huge amount of gas carbon dioxide. This gas
has been emitted into the atmosphere in increasing amounts over the past 200 years with an
accentuation over the past 50 years.​22
As it is widely recognized, global warming has a big number of consequences. Besides
the rapid rise of temperatures, one of the most visible evidence of global warming is “the
change of ocean heating, and not the (earth’s) surface air temperature, record”.​23 While,
another might result in typhoons, floods, and drought .​24

The NRDC also points the appearance of new pests,

18
National Resources Defense Council. Global Warming 101.
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101#warming
19
Le Treut, H., Somerville, R., Cubasch, U., Ding, Y., Mauritzen, C., Mokssit, A., Peterson, T.,
Prather, M., (2007). ​Historical Overview of Climate Change Science. In: Climate Change 2007: The
Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chang.​ Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United
Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
20
National Resources Defense Council. ​Global Warming 101.​
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101#warming
21
Karl, Thomas R., Trenberth, Kevin E. (2003). ​Modern Global Climate Change.​ In: Science, Vol 302,
Issue 5651, p. 1716-1719.
22
Houghton, J. (2009). Global Warming: The Complete Briefing. 4th Edition, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, p.13
23
Khandekar, M.L; Murty, T. S; Chittibabu. P. (2005). The Global Warming Debate: A review of the
state of Science
24
Michaels, P. J., Balling, C. R. (2010). Climate of extremes. Washington, DC: Cato Institute.
 “disruption of habitats such as coral reefs and Alpine meadows could drive many
plant and animal species to extinction; Allergies, asthma, and infectious disease outbreaks
will become more common due to increased growth of pollen-producing ragweed”.​25

According to the International Organization for Migration, it is said that if humans do not
change their behaviors, “by 2099 the world is expected to be on average between 1.8ºC and
4ºC hotter than it is right now”​26​. At the same time, it may bring a few more problems to the
table like melting glaciers and the obligation to nations to move out from their countries, that
can be seen already.

3. Social Activism
3.1. Definitions and Roles

According to Forrest Briscoe and Abhinav Gupta, social activism can be defined as
“instances in which individuals or groups of individuals who lack full access to
institutionalized channels of influence engage in collective action to remedy a perceived
social problem, or to promote or counter changes to the existing social order”.​27 As it can be,
sometimes, confused with volunteerism, the two terms should also be distinguished. With
several points that both separate and unite them, social activism is always associated with a
cause or ideal that involves more than helping or offering ones’ services. Therefore, activism
involves advocacy.
Unlike activism, volunteerism doesn’t hold its values under a need to advocate for a
certain subject or cause. Volunteerism sees its action under the idea of helping the poor or
those in need, and that is the main difference between those two terms that can, sometimes,
be associated and practiced together, but have, on its core, very different goals.​28
Briscoe and Gupta also define social activists as “individuals and groups engaging in
collective action to remedy perceived social problems. Social activists operate through groups
or social movement organizations (SMOs) characterized by varying degrees of formal and
informal organization”. Characterizing social activists and attributing them with certain traits

25
National Resources Defense Council. Global Warming 101.
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101#warming
26
Brown, O. (2008). Migrate and Climate Change. International Organization for Migrations.
27
Briscoe, F., Gupta, A., “Social Activism in and Around Organizations”, The Academy of
Management Annals, 2016.
28
Taib, M. “”(de)Meaning of Social Activism”, Karyawan Magazine, 2006
and actions, Bill Moyer states that “there are four different roles activists and social
movements need to play in order to successfully create social change: the citizen, rebel,
change agent and reformer. Each role has different purposes, styles, skills, and needs and can
be played effectively or ineffectively”.​29
These roles also can be interpreted as the different types of social activism that can be
identified in the society, because social activism movements have, as main actors, the same
people that embody them. ​The specific skills and behaviors of each role, and the ways they
can be perceived as effective or ineffective, are specified on the table below.

Table 1.​ Roles in Social Activism​30

Reformer

Effective Ineffective

- P
​ arliamentary: Uses official main-stream - P
​ OOs: Dominator/patriarchal model of

system and institutions – e.g., courts, organizational structure and leadership;

legislature, city hall, corporations – to get
- Organizational maintenance over
the movement’s goals, values, alternatives
movement needs;
adopted into official laws, policies, and
conventional wisdom. - D
​ ominator style undermines movement

democracy and disempowers grassroots;

- U
​ ses a variety of means: lobbying,

lawsuits, referenda, rallies, candidates, etc.; - P

​ OO “Realistic Politics”: Promotes minor

reforms rather than social changes;

- Professional Opposition Organizations
​

(POOs) are the key movement agencies, - POO co-optation: Staff identify more
​

with official powerholders than with

- Watchdogs successes to assure
movement grassroots.
enforcement, expand successes, and protect
against backlash;

29
Moyer, B., “Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements”, 2001.
30
Moyer, B. “Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements”, 2001.
- POOs nurture and support the
​

grassroots.

Change Agent

Effective Ineffective

- O
​ rganizes People Power and the Engaged - T
​ oo utopian: Promotes visions of
Citizenry, creating participatory democracy perfectionist alternatives in isolation from
for the common good; practical and political action;

- Educates and involver the majority of -​

​ Promotes only minor reforms;
​

citizens and whole society in the issue;

- Movement leadership and organizations
​

- Involves
​ pre-existing mass-based based on patriarchy and control rather than
grassroots organizations, networks, participatory democracy;
coalitions, and activists on the issue;
-​ Tunnel vision: Advocates single issue;
​

- Promotes strategies and tactics for

​
- Ignores personal issues and needs of
​
waging long-term social movement;
activists;
- Creates and supports grassroots
​
- Unconnected to social and political
​
activism and organizations for the long
social change and paradigm shift;
term;

- Puts issue on society’s political

​

agenda;

-​ Counters new power holder strategies;

​

-​ Promotes alternatives;
​

-​ Promotes a paradigm shift;

​

Rebel
 Effective Ineffective

- Protest: says “NO” to violations of -​

​ Authoritarian anti-authoritarian
​

positive, widely held human values;

-​ Against everything and every rule;
​

- Non-violent direct action and attitude;

​
- Self-identifies as militant radical, a
​
demonstrations, rallies and marches
lonely voice on society’s fringe;
including civil disobedience;
- Any means necessary; Disruptive
​
- Target: Powerholders and their
​
tactics and violence to property and people;
institutions (government and corporations);

-​ Tactics without realistic strategy;

​
- Puts issue and policies in public
​

spot-light and on society’s agenda; -​ Isolated form grassroots mass-base;

​

-​ Actions have strategy and tactics;

​ - Victim behavior: Angry, dogmatic,
​

aggressive, and powerless;

- Empowered, exciting, courageous,
​

risky, center of public attention; - Ideological totalism: Holds absolute

​

truth and moral, political superiority;

-​ Holds relative, not absolute, truth
​

- Strident, arrogant, egocentric; self

​

needs before movement needs;

- Irony of negative rebel: Negative rebel

​

similar to agent provocateur

Citizen
 Effective Ineffective

- Promotes positive values, principles -

​ Naïve citizen; Believrs the “official
​

and symbols; policies” and does not realize that the

powerholders and institutions serve special
-​ Normal citizen;
​
elite interests at the expense of the majority

-​ Grounded in the center society;

​ and the common good.

- Promotes active citizen-based society, OR

​

where citizens act with disinterest to assure

- Super-patriotic:
​ Gives automatic
the common good;
obedience to power holders and the

- the active citizen is the source of country.

​

legitimate political power;

-​ Acts on “confirmatory bias” concept

​

- Examples: Martin Luther King and

​

Mandela

Each social movement needs to have a good balance of these four roles, in order to create a
significant impact on society. But what is exactly, the definition of “success” or “positive
impact” of a social movement?

3.2. The role and outcome of social activism

Social activism’s goal is to create and encourage social change, whatever that might mean,
depending on the specific movement or organization promoting the change in question.
However, one of the fields that social activism influences is, without a doubt, politics.

Social activism, as a group of actions trying to implement significant changes in a society,

has the ability to influence political discourse. According to Joshua D. Atkinson “activism
plays an important role in democratic discourse”. “Social movements and activism do not so
much influence politics in a direct manner but constitute much of the discourse that
constitutes and shapes a society.”​31

Putting the four roles defined by Moyer working effectively towards a common goal
could be one of the successful ways to create a positive outcome in social media movements.
What would this positive outcome be? First, the mobilization of society by calling attention
to an important matter. This mobilization could, then, create an impact on the political forces
of a country, capable of working towards a main goal, putting words into actions and creating
real changes, with policies and laws.

And here lies the importance of social activism: being able to give voice to those who
cannot be heard, fighting for something that can’t fight for itself. Impacting and creating real
change in the world, through shaping and influencing society and political actors.

4. Case study: Extinction Rebellion movement on Instagram based on

analysis of countries: Spain, Poland, Portugal

4.1 Extinction Rebellion: definition

Science has warned politicians for decades about the dangers of climate change, but
few have listened to scientists. Now the authorities will have to deal with the mass rallies and
strikes to protect the planet's climate. In general, scientists try to avoid loud political
statements, however, the situation with climate change is so serious that they increasingly had
to break this rule. Nearly 400 scholars, representing almost 20 different countries, supported
the campaign of civil disobedience, called ​Extinction Rebellion.​ 32
​ Their aim is to combat
climate change, and they warned the governments worldwide that failure to do so could lead
to "countless human suffering". So, what is the Extinction Rebellion movement and why is it
so important?
In short, Extinction Rebellion (XR) is “an international movement that uses non-violent
civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social
collapse”​33​. Initially, the campaign group was established by hundreds of academics in May

31
Atkinson. J.D., “Journey into Social Activism: Qualitative Approaches”, 2017​.
32
Korotkov, M., “Scientists from 20 countries have supported climate riots to save the planet”, Eco
Technology, 2019
33
Extinction Rebellion, https://extinctionrebellion.uk/the-truth/about-us/
2018, in the United Kingdom, who signed the call for environmental protection. A few
months later, the group gained their leaders such as Roger Hallam and Gail Bradbrook who,
at that time, were already quite visible in various public demonstrations and actions opposing
government’s ignorance when it comes to our planet and the danger from anthropogenic
climate change. The big performance that emerged in Britain did a huge resonance worldwide
and immediately received support in numerous countries from Amsterdam to Melbourne.
"The urgency of the climate crisis is now so great that many scientists believe that we now
have a moral obligation to take radical action," argued one of the XR activists. Since the first
actions, around 1300 protesters have been arrested at various manifestations only in London.
At the same period, another 1,463 protesters were arrested in 20 cities, including Brussels,
New York, Toronto, and Sydney.​34
Campaign’s logo, which in most cases is presented on their flag, is a stylized symbol of
an hourglass in a circle, and tactics include peaceful capture of bridges and roads. Many
supporters have long said that the traditional peaceful methods no longer work and drastic
action, such as blocking traffic, is needed.
Among all activists’ demands, they choose three key ones that are consonant with other
nations and countries. They are as follows:
“1. The government must the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working
with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change;
2. The government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse-gas
emissions to net zero by 2025;
3. The government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizen’s Assembly on
climate and ecological justice;”​35

The opponents of XR’s public performances also complain that the actions of the
protesters delivered inconvenience to thousands of people and divert the resources of the
police. Nevertheless, Extinction Rebellion coordinates their actions with the youth movement
for climate protection ​Fridays for the Future​, that has been inspired by the Swedish activist,
Greta Thunberg. Thus, since their cooperation, the movement was mobilized and supported
by over a million of young activists. Many scholars hope that such a merger of protest
movements will attract more and more volunteers to their ranks.

34
Roger H.,, Common Sense for the 21st Century : Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate
Breakdown and Social Collapse, 2019
35
Extinction Rebellion, This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook, 2019
4.2 Brief analysis of XR Instagram platforms in Spain, Poland and Portugal

As it has been mentioned before ​in this paper, nowadays Instagram is considered as a
perfect tool that supports specific groups with developing or managing user activity by using
appealing storytelling that is represented by visual, imaginary, videos and highlights. It, by no
means, inspires anyone who sees this, to get involved and respond accordingly. One of the
main advantages of using Instagram to active organisation is the ability to create a
community of like-minded people around your campaign and raise the morale of the case by
engaging in sharing the posts, streams, and hashtags. Taking the above statement into
account, Extinction Rebellion is one of those movements who use this tactic of
communication. However, if they use this succesfully, the paper will discuss it in the
following chapters based on analysis of three XR’s Instagram (IG) pages: “Extinction
Rebellion Spain''​36​, “XR_Portugal”​37​, and “Extinction Rebellion Polska”​38​.
First of all, it is important to start the analysis from a general overview of IG platforms in
terms of numbers. Even though the XR movement gained worldwide popularity, it does not
mean that their social media activity is keeping up at the same level everywhere. The
following table represents the number of followers, highlights and posts according to a
specific country.

Table 1.

Origin of XR Portugal XR Spain XR Poland

Instagram
platform

Posts 1065 351 411

Followers 2404 12,3K 8711

Highlights 27 11 18

According to Table.1, it can be seen that no matter how many posts the campaign creates, the number
of followers may differ significantly. For example, comparing Spanish IG page to Portuguese, “XR

36
Instagram page of Extinction Rebellion in Spain, https://www.instagram.com/esxrebellion/
37
Instagram page of Extinction Rebellion in Portugal, https://www.instagram.com/extinctionrebellionpt/
38
Instagram page of Extinction Rebellion in Poland,
https://www.instagram.com/extinctionrebellionpolska/
Spain '' seems to be the leader in numbers of followers (12,3K), however they only have 351 posts
added. On the other hand, Portugal is the leader in posts - 1065, while the number of followers is
smaller and equal to 2,404. Polish page, on the contrary, is not leading in any stated criterias.
Nevertheless, for 411 posts, they have around 9K followers which in this case, represents the highest
engagement and support from Polish citizens.
What is more, currently social media platforms upgrade their functions, every year or even each
quarter. Instagram is not an exception. As opposed to “stories”​39​, by adding “highlights” to IG main
feed, every user can save their “stories” so followers or any interested viewer is able to review it once
again when he or she wants it.​40 Based on innovations and its use, Portugeese XR feed shows the
biggest commitment in sharing and caring about their mission. 27 saved “highlights” means that
Portuguese page is the most active among others. The more you share “stories'', the more you
influence and attract the audience and then, of course, you have what to save in your “highlights”.
According to Kim and Sung, ‘non-verbal elements’ such as colors should be considered as the key
veriables in terms of brand personality.​41 Scholars also argue that “the persuasive function of visual
contents” is more valuable than verbal, and that “ the visual content is more effective in creating a
favorable attitude towards the brand than the verbal belief.” In our case, colors are ,indeed, essential
when it comes to analysis of the mood and intention of activist’s on social media.

39
Instagram function that offer the user to share any video and photo with the audience only for 24
hour;
40
Thomas.V., Chavez, M., Browne, E., Minnis, A, “Instagram as a tool for study engagement and
community building among adolescents: A social media pilot study”, Digital Health, 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7081469/
41
Kim, S., Sung, Y., The Effects of Colors on Brand Personality in Advertising, The Journal of
Advertising and Promotion Research, Vol 2. No 2., 2013
 C​omparing the three presented IG platforms, XR Poland seems to be more friendly than
Spanish and Portugeese. The green color on the logo and also on some “highlights'' gives the
viewer a feeling not only of strong activism against extinction of rare species and global
warming but also of movement that encourages and educates about what matters. On the
other hand, IG pages of Spain and Portugal reflect radical action and call for justice. On both
logos, black and red colors dominate others. Once entering the page, viewers feel aggression
and pain of the activists, who are probably tired of being not heard by local governments.

4.3 People’s engagement and responses to XR activism

The final part of this analysis is going to represent several particular cases which will
explain the reader people’s engagement and responses towards particular visual content
presented on each of three discussed XR’s Instagram platforms: Spanish, Portugeese and
Polish. Also, concepts like designs, graphics and titles will be discussed here.

XR Poland
During the deep analysis of Polish XR’s activity on Instagram, a lot of different tactics of
communication have been found. First of all, once entering a page, the follower can see posts
not only of photos made throughout demonstrations, but also of graphics, quotes, interviews,
charts, maps, line-ups and slogans. This profile of Polish XR activists was created on 22 May
2019 and starting from 43 “likes” for the first post, they managed to keep the audience and
reach over 2K “likes” for the presented one below.

The post gained the highest number of “likes” - 2839 - and the highest number of comments,
equal to 94. The photos published under this post represent the idea of naming streets in
Poland in the name of popular climate protesters such as Greta Thunberg, etc. The publishers
call for politician attention and say that:
 “Greta Thunberg probably deserved her square in front of the Ministry of Climate, don't you think?
Politicians and politicians - we look at your hands. We sincerely hope that the appointment of the
ministry is not only good PR, but a real desire to change and start climate action. In a dozen / several
dozen years we will have no choice but to deal with the climate crisis - we will be at its very center.
Until then - let the names of these streets remind you of what you are fighting for and for. And who
you should follow.”

Their other ideas of street naming are: “Drought”, “Melting Glaciers”and “solar panels”.

XR Spain

Moving to the second part of feedback analysis, the Spanish Instagram page seems to be the
most unique in comparison to Portugeese and Polish. The reason behind this lies in the unity
of Spanish people and their actions presented on XR Instagram. Almost every published post
or video resembles events and demonstrations that took place and were done, in most cases,
by Spanish themselves. It gives the follower inspiration to listen to the main agenda of the
movement and to become one of them. What is more, one of the main features of their
influence is putting people as the main element on their posts. The viewer can see less
graphics, images and charts, but instead, he or she can see a group of people or even one
person in action. In other words, people who are in the process of making a change.

Apart from the above pluses, the engagement on “XR Spain” is very high. Almost every
second post among 351 has more than 200 “likes”, that at the same time shows the highest
user participation among other presented pages. However, not only likes are essential in
targeting new followers. Going through all the content, the viewer can easily be attracted by
the number of comments and its character. In the era of emoticons and smile “reactions”, the
“XR Spain '' offers a different perspective of response.​42 The account’s comment sections are
full of discussions, arguments and recommendations that explain people’s interest and
support of work that has been done so far by “XR Spain”. For instance, a post published on
2nd Nov 2020, gained 1365 “likes” and 33 comments.

This post shows a huge flow of protesters who block the la Gran Via street in Madrid.
According to the title and description of the post, the agenda of demonstration based on the
following:
“2019 closed with 25 MILLION climate displaced persons. 25 million people had to FLEE from their
homes; pushed by droughts, driven out by catastrophes and hunger, all for not having acted in time
against the ecological crisis.And in Spain? It is ALREADY happening: if we maintain the annual rate
of emissions, even if we reach the climate neutrality commitment in 2050, more than 200,000 people
will have had to flee their homes due to the rise in sea level.”

XR Portugal
The last case is about Portuguese ​Extinction Rebellion feed. As it was already mentioned in
the previous chapter, Portugal took the first place, in terms of number of posts delivered -
1065. From one point of view, such a tactic can be perceived by IG users or followers as a
big advantage. But from another, it is not numbers that matter. In the case of activists’

42
Ben-Ze’ev, A. (2004). Love online: Emotions on the Internet. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
movement profile, the value of the content is. Scrolling down “XR Portugal '' portfolio, one
might notice that posts are very similar and do not evolve any characteristics inherited to
Portuguese people and their behaviour. In most cases, the page is led in English, which
possibly means copying content from the Global page of XR or from the page of the United
Kingdom. Having said that, the analysis came to one of the important conclusions: even
though social media is the instrument for sharing and gathering people with the same beliefs
and intentions, to be a game player there, you need to be unique and different from others at
the same time. The Portuguese XR instagram, unfortunately, showed very poor performance
in comparison to Polish and Spanish. The average amount of “likes” fluctuates between
45-65. However, there is only one post who received 101 likes, while it resembles only a
demonstration that took place in Great Britain,​43 not inside Portugal. Also, when it comes to
follower’s feedback and their reactions, the screenshot represents its absence, or just little
amount when it comes to other publications.

44

43
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/xr-activists-pour-blood-over-trafalgar-square-in-solidarity-pro
test-with-brazil-indigenous-peoples
44
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDrYUQ7nJsu/
Conclusion

Even though the three Instagram pages that were analyzed on this paper have different
elements, all of them fall under the category of social media activism and share the common
goal of raising awareness about global warming and climate change. As it was previously
mentioned, since its appearance, social media has become extremely relevant in the life of
individuals. As it is widely recognized, a big part of the population relies on social platforms
to connect with others and stay informed. The latter is a big advantage of social media.
Besides giving its user the opportunity to connect with others, it allows people to share
information on various topics. Instagram, for instance, is a platform that has all of those
features. Because of that, the app became an essential tool for activists and the groups they
are in.

As it was proven by this paper, the social media platform gives activists the opportunity to
develop and manage their activities, by sharing information, promoting a certain message and
reaching new people every day. Since activism is made out of people, feedback becomes an
important part. Instagram also allows accounts to understand if they are doing a good job
with likes and comments, where people can share their personal opinions and information,
they think it’s important.

Focusing on the results we obtained, it is clear to see that the fight for global warming and
climate change differs from country to country. One of the main conclusions, based on the
numbers that were shown, is that Spain is more interested in the cause than the two other
countries. Even though Spanish Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram account is the one with less
posts, it has the biggest number of followers, a lot of original content and, as it was stated, a
high performance in terms of engagement. The Polish account comes second on the list, close
to the results of the Spanish one. Only the Portuguese account lacks engagement. This proves
that, even though all of the pages are under the same “brand” different elements can give
different results. Original content ends up being the magic trick for success on Instagram.
 With that said, we can affirm that Instagram plays a big and important role in activism, but
a big part of the fight still happens on the street. Nevertheless, a lot of the street marching,
and protests would not exist without the help of the social media platform.

In this essay we asked ourselves if social media, in this case Instagram, had an effective
role on global warming and climate change activism. The answer is yes. The power that
social media has gained over the years allowed it to take politicians into accountability and
start discussions on the topic. But, for now, it is impossible to tackle problems by just relying
on Instagram. However, in times like this, where conversations about the health of the earth
are more and more emergent, Instagram plays a huge role on helping activism groups, such as
Extinction Rebellion, spreading awareness about their causes, gaining recognition and
gathering new supporters, but also on promoting social events, like marches and peaceful
protests. It is also substantial to address the fact that Instagram, or social media itself, is the
only place where the topic of global warming is being completely approached.
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