Fridays For Future Italia: Movement’s Visual Communication on Instagram

Social media use transformed political engagement by offering the chance to voice political views. Global strikes for climate reflect the trend in international protest where political actors are “connected through social media and other digital media tools” (Boulianne, Lalacette and Ilkiw 2020). The different forms in which digital activism comes together allow a higher variety of tactics and, consequently, a higher but diversified engagement (ibid) “into a loosely organized network” (Bennett and Segerberg 2012). In climate justice movements, as FFF is, social media allows the representation of a global problem following loose networks and adapting to different cultures. The young age of FFF's participants, the extensive participation in the Global Strike for Climate, the transversal nature of its claims, and the extensive use of social media make Greta Thunberg's movement the perfect case study to understand politically active Youth and their collective identity on social media platforms. Across the chapter, I examine the evolution of FFF Italia communication on Meta’s visual platform, Instagram. The analysis of posts is carried out using Global Strikes for Climate as moments of critical junctures relevant to the examination of the movement’s communication development.