#UprootTheSystem - Exploring Fridays for Future’s Visual Climate Storytelling

The first element of the movement’s visual climate storytelling is simplifying the current discourse on climate change. For instance, parts of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which contains extensive science-based information on global warming, is converted into short sentences and imperatives (see here). Messages are highlighted in bold letters and colors; images of natural disasters visualize the subtext of the post (see Figure 1).

Simplification is used to educate the audience. Individuals are informed about climate change on the basis of three aspects: (1) the certainty of its existence, (2) the urgency to act and (3) the solutions it takes (see here and here). Within each of these individual messages, certain phrases are accentuated in order to get the messages across (see for instance here). Furthermore, FFF provides the viewer with graphs and maps, which highlight the consequences of climate change (see  here). Scientific information is thus presented in a simplified and concise manner.

By presenting findings of the IPCC report in such a way, knowledge about climate science arguably becomes more accessible. As a result a wider collective can be engaged in the fight against climate change. Simultaneously, these messages also instill individuals with a sense of responsibility and equip them with knowledge on appropriate action.

 
Personalization

The second element of the movement’s visual climate storytelling is personalization. This comprises for instance self-made videos in which activists tell stories, make statements and articulate their demands towards political leaders. Often these videos take place in a domestic setting, for instance at the home of activists, or outside, usually in urban space, during climate protests.

For the global climate strike on 24 September, activists in one location, for instance Mexico, have video called fellow protestors in other locations, for instance Colombia (see  here). In these live calls activists show their surrounding area including fellow protesters and give an account of their activities. Often they explain the local background of their climate protests and report about their experiences of the day (see screenshot below and other examples  here and  here).

In line with the movement’s master narrative of climate justice, viewers learn to what extent the consequences of climate change differ according to local conditions. A common metaphor, which is often used by climate activists, is the claim that while people may be sitting in the same storm, they are not sitting in the same boat (see  here for instance).

Some of the young activists also entwine their climate messages with self-made performances and collages made popular by video-sharing platforms like TikTok (see also  here). Memes are also used by climate activists as a tool of visual storytelling (see here). As a particular form of self-expression, memes function through humorous interventions and show a personal(ized) way of engaging with the topic of climate change.

Both performances and memes are exemplary of the visual codes that FFF is utilizing in its climate storytelling in order to appeal to the younger consumers of new digital media. While the visual strategies of personalization arguably resonate better with the everyday experience of (younger) individuals, they, after all, put local environmental concerns and issues into a more global context.

Individual action

The third aspect of FFF’s visual climate storytelling can be called individual action. This comprises images of the actual protests of #UprootTheSystem. These include single photographs, collages and short videos of individuals, groups and masses (see for instance here). The protestors hold banners, posters and signs, which contain demands, ironic phrases and/or political messages (see Figure 4).

While this form of protest is itself visual, important to mention, we believe, is that the activists are showing the ways to take action against climate change. Research has shown that the Covid-19 pandemic heavily affected FFF’s activism, which essentially relies on the organization of mass protests in public space (Haßler et. al 2021; Hunger & Hutter 2021; Sorce & Dumitrica 2021). The Corona-related restrictions of banning public gatherings, hence, dealt a significant blow to the climate storytelling abilities of the activists.

Therefore, it is vital for the movement to visualize agency and show, through images of action, a global audience that individuals can make a difference in the current climate crisis. This form of visual storytelling corresponds to the observation made by scholars that FFF has altered mainstream climate change discourse by instilling the general idea that ‘every individual carries responsibility and can provoke change in his/her everyday acts’ (Drieschova 2021: 5).

Conclusion

We have examined the question of how FFF visually tells the story of climate change to global audiences in its official Instagram account. We found that visual climate storytelling of FFF is characterized by three aspects: simplification, personalization and individual action. While we found that FFF is also utilizing analogies (in particular linking climate change to Covid-19) as a narrative strategy of public engagement, they did not visualize it sufficiently yet.

The success of the movement as a global storyteller of climate change makes it worthy of further studies in narrative research and environmental communication. These include questions, for instance, about the use of visual analogies, the gendered dimension of FFF’s climate storytelling (the apparent focus on young female activists) or its reliance on the visibility of large-scale protests, which arguably helps to sustain the narrative that it is practicing grassroots democracy and endows its political claims with legitimacy.