“School Strike 4 Climate”: Social Media and the International Youth Protest on Climate Change

Abstract

Beginning in 2018, youth across the globe participated in protest activities aimed at encouraging government action on climate change. This activism was initiated and led by Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg. Like other contemporary movements, the School Strike 4 Climate used social media. For this article, we use Twitter trace data to examine the global dynamics of the student strike on March 15, 2019. We offer a nuanced analysis of 993 tweets, employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis. Like other movements, the primary function of these tweets was to share information, but we highlight a unique type of information shared in these tweets—documentation of local events across the globe. We also examine opinions shared about youth, the tactic (protest/strike), and climate change, as well as the assignment of blame on government and other institutions for their inaction and compliance in the climate crisis. This global climate strike reflects a trend in international protest events, which are connected through social media and other digital media tools. More broadly, it allows us to rethink how social media platforms are transforming political engagement by offering actors—especially the younger generation—agency through the ability to voice their concerns to a global audience.

“We need to make our voices heard”: Claiming space for young people’s everyday environmental politics in northern Finland

“…Young people have often been in the forefront of activist and environmentalist movements, expressing dissent against the state of current affairs with respect to environmental issues at global (Rome 2003) or local (Järvikoski 1995) scales. The current youth climate movement is characterized by an unequalled global scope and focus (Wahlström et al 2019) and by young people's use of social media as a means of sharing their concerns to a global audience (Boulianne, Lalancette & Ilkiw 2020). A justified sense of urgency is connected to their participation: if no urgent actions are taken, scientists have warned that global warming will exceed +1.5°C above pre-industrial levels with severe implications for living conditions on this planet (IPCC 2018).…”

Una experiencia de comunicación acerca de cambio climático a través de ciberactivismo durante el COVID: El caso de Fridays For Future Salamanca

“…A pesar de la presencia de un contenido asociado a la pandemia, se mantiene la línea informativa y de opiniones que verificaron Boulianne et al (2020). Sin embargo, se observa una tendencia a no solo hablar de emergencia climática, sino también de una crisis ecológica relacionada con la influencia de la COVID-19 en el corpus.…”

“…Esto explica la razón por la cual se han realizado varios estudios que buscan analizar el contenido de las redes sociales digitales de Fridays For Future y de sus activistas. En este sentido, Boulianne et al (2020) realizaron una investigación en Twitter con métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos, a través del análisis de la primera huelga global por el clima realizada el 15 de marzo de 2019. Para ello, procedieron a seleccionar 993 tweets relacionados con las etiquetas que fueron tendencia ese día (#fridaysforfuture, #schoolstrike4climate y #climatestrike), verificando que en el discurso primaba un mensaje informativo y de opiniones.…”

Growing up with HIV

“…There are continued initiatives to make youth engagement in HIV research more meaningful, as well as to enhance youth representation at major sector events [3][4][5]. These efforts are not unique to HIV and across most global issues youth are increasingly being heard, prioritized and finding power and inspiration through their involvement [6][7][8].…”