Communicating Climate Justice: Struggles in the Mediatised Era

The impact of environmental communication on structured communication and public awareness of environmental issues has been extensively studied. Researchers have analysed institutional communication strategies aimed at promoting environmentalism, identifying effective methods to educate the public and encourage behavioural changes in response to climate change. They have also examined the role of civil society, particularly focusing on how NGOs influence environmental communication. However, the most recent wave of mobilisation for climate justice raises questions about the effectiveness of communicating climate emergencies and social issues in a society saturated with media. There is a notable gap in how climate justice is visually represented by social movements and how this representation has evolved. New social movements have proven their capability to organise international mobilisation and attract public attention. In Italy, for instance, activists have demonstrated their ability to create a communicative organisation that effectively addresses the challenges posed by digital media. In response to the climate emergency, Extinction Rebellion (XR), Fridays for Future (FFF), and Ultima Generazione (UG) have skilfully combined online communication with protest actions, thereby shaping public perception of environmental degradation as a social emergency. These movements have been particularly effective on social media in Italy, especially Instagram. It is therefore relevant to study their communication efforts and explore how social movements frame the climate emergency. Adopting a multi-method approach, this paper attempts to address the existing research gap by investigating how climate movements visually represent environmental and climate issues, and how these representations evolve. To achieve this, the author triangulated the results of a visual content analysis of Instagram posts published by the movements between 2019 and 2023, a visual qualitative analysis, and expert interviews. Furthermore, the evolution of climate justice inevitably touches upon the topics of protests and conflict. Consequently, the findings of this paper demonstrate how the communication of the climate justice issue in the Italian context has become deeply intertwined with non-violent civil disobedience.