As activism including climate strikes have become a common occurrence around the world, it is important to consider the growth in climate change‐focused activism and participation in social movements as a specific type of civic engagement. Although studies have analyzed climate activism and the climate movement, there is limited research that integrates it into the broader literature on civic engagement and which considers how these forms of engagement are related to specific climate outcomes. Here, we take a first step in understanding the material outcomes of these efforts. Specifically, we provide an overview of climate‐related activism as a form of civic engagement, paying particular attention to the targets of this activism and its environmental outcomes in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Then, we focus on one of the most common tactics to gain momentum in recent years: the school strike, which has mobilized a growing number of participants around the world. We discuss how the Coronavirus pandemic has changed the climate movement with much activism moving online. We conclude by discussing the overall state of the knowledge about the outcomes of climate activism, as well as highlighting the need for careful research to measure its effects across scale. This article is categorized under Policy and Governance > Private Governance of Climate Change The Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Climate Science and Social Movements
How has the youth climate movement in the US grown since the Climate Strikes began and in what ways did it change as it grew? This article takes advantage of a unique dataset that includes surveys from activists who organized the nationally coordinated climate strikes in the US that began with Fridays for Future in spring 2019. Building on the research on alliance building and strategic coalitions, this article analyzes how the patterns of participation changed over the period of the study. We employ social network analysis to map the affiliation networks among the organizers of these events to assess the coalitions of groups involved and the shifting organizational landscape. Our analysis does not provide evidence that groups spanned the boundaries across movements, nor does it show that identity plays a role in coalition building in this movement. Instead, by mapping out the coalition of organizations within this movement and how connections among them change over time, we see clear evidence that this youth-led movement was reoriented by adult-led organizations. Our article concludes by considering how these findings suggest the future trajectory of the youth climate movement and its role in a ‘new climate politics’ in America.
Scholastic journalism plays an important role in future professional journalism. Due to journalism’s place in a functioning democracy, journalism education is also tied to a democracy’s success. Many U.S. states have cut budgets severely for public education, which heavily affects subjects such as journalism. Researchers interviewed 14 scholastic journalism advisers in Oklahoma, concerning how student publications function amid financial cuts. Results indicate advisers engaging in innovative teaching and collaboration due to budget cuts, finding ways for publications to connect and be useful for schools and communities, and advisers’ fears and concerns due lack of support and ever-decreasing funding obstacles.
How does collective identity form in virtual spaces and what role do hashtags play? This paper takes advantage of a unique dataset that includes surveys from activists who organized the nationally coordinated climate strikes in the US that began in spring 2019 to answer these questions. Building on the research about collective identity formation online and the role that hashtags play, we employ social network analysis to assess how collective identity forms online over three waves of protests. In particular, we analyze how activists involved in the youth climate movement used hashtags to project their collective identities and create collective narratives. Our findings show how hashtags use varied over the period of our study, in some cases indicating the formation of a thin collective identity. They also show that there are patterns in the ways hashtags are employed by activists in the movement that suggest the formation of subaltern narratives among those affiliated with youth-led groups. Our paper concludes by considering how this finding helps us understand collective identity in virtual spaces and the role that hashtags play more specifically within social movements.
Through a qualitative textual analysis of writing samples from 10 high school journalism programs, this research explores the types of subjectivity found in student journalists’ reported news stories. Results are categorized into three problem areas: 1) problems common to most novice writers; 2) problems of nuance, which are more complicated and can require years of experience to fully grasp, and 3) problems specific to young writers who have grown up in a digital media landscape that allows them to shape the content they consume to their specifications. Recommendations relevant to scholastic journalism instruction follow analysis.
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