Introduction and state of the art

Use of Social Media in politics and activism has been widely studied in recent years (Castells, 2013; Rovira, 2017; Postill, 2018; 2014; Treré, 2018; 2012), but less attention has been given to the role of image and visuals as a performative part of social movements. Nevertheless, the impact of memes as an element of communication that is specifically digital, now present in almost all political debate and mobilization, is generally recognized (Costanza-Chock, 2012; Piñeiro-Otero & Martínez-Rolán, 2016).

According to Shifman (2013:365), memes “shape the mindsets, forms of behavior, and actions of social groups” appealing to a community and the existence of a common goal. Rowan (2015) situates the role of memes in politics and their importance to the indignados and Occupy Wall Street movements. According to this author, memes introduce young people to a rare political sphere, of expressing opinion, but also of discussion establishing clear positions. Behind the joke, we find an expression of concerns, sensitivities and desires that we cannot ignore. According to Rowan, memes may be defined as “sets of images that are normally accompanied by an amusing text that may or may not be directly related to the image” (Rowan, 2015: 298). They are characterized by their replicability, the creation of copies (ideological or figurative) through imitation (Vitiuk et al., 2020: 53) and their lack of artistic pretensions, offering an informal, unpolished aesthetics (eventually one of their main traits).

It is interesting to observe the insertion of memes and analyse their function on Instagram, given the importance of meticulously crafted images in this social media platform. We suggest that these images are used precisely because of their economy of production and their educational potential as mythological narrative, despite their lack of aesthetics. Furthermore, in the specific case of environmental activism, memes appeal to a primordial eschatological myth: they are harbingers of the future, the end of the world, if human action is not reversed. Although in most eschatological myths, the destruction of the world is caused by a non-human agent (a god, alien, natural cataclysm), in many cases it is associated with a moral failing in humanity (the Great Flood). In the case of environmental myths, the cause of the end of the world is direct human action against which nature is retaliating.

Material and methods

This study is part of a broader research project on narrative cultures, social action, and audience building in contemporary society, and more specifically, in the field of digital media. The focus on Instagram is the result of our interest on the emergence of new forms of activism based on images and personal narratives (Georgakopoulou, 2016; San Cornelio & Roig, 2018) which are characteristic of the so-called “influencers” (Abidin, 2017) and that are spreading as a form of environmental activism (Murphy, 2019) in social media. In addition to these personal narratives there is certain memetic production, which is the object of study here. Specifically, in this paper we are interested in understanding how digital narratives in environmental activism articulate mythologies oriented to the future, in such a way that text and image constitute meaningful narrative units for both their creators and audiences.

Our methodological approach is qualitative in nature and the empirical fieldwork is limited to digital media. The study of digital technology-mediated communication was already well established at the start of this century in which different types of methodological approaches and online research techniques (Mann & Steward, 2000), virtual methods (Hine, 2005), and digital methods (Rogers, 2009), have been developed. Markham (2013) stresses the duality of the Internet as a field and method of study, suggesting it is not just a research tool for compiling data but also a field in which to conduct research, i.e. the social context in which people (including the researcher) meet and interact. These digital methods include adapting and reformulating conventional research techniques, such as participant observation and interviews (Kozinets, 2010; Postill & Pink, 2012; Ardèvol & Gómez-Cruz, 2012; Pink et al. 2016).

Our fieldwork is based on participant observation after creating a research account on Instagram, after which we drew up a theoretical sample (Strauss & Corbyn, 1994) consisting of 60 accounts selected on the basis of these criteria: a) topic related to climate change, sustainability and ecologically responsible consumption, preferably with an identifiable personal profile; b) maximum variety with the aim of identifying relevant categories and drawing up a grounded typology; c) language; given that the sample universe is global and local, we decided to select profiles in both English (30) and Spanish (25), while also including other languages such as Catalan and German (5); d) volume of followers: we consider the number of followers significant in defining an eco-influencer. Hence, the minimum criterion was 1,000 followers in the case of languages such as Catalan, whereas 10,000 was considered more adequate for English and Spanish language profiles, although there is currently no consensus as to the minimum number of followers needed for a profile to be considered an influencer ¹ .

It is interesting to highlight that most of the profiles in our sample were personal (82%) while the rest belonged to couples or families (4.2%), groups and organizations (8.4%) or brands, selling or promoting eco-sustainable products (5.4%), although many personal accounts also promote their own products or eco-sustainable brands.

Drawing from the fieldwork carried on between June and December 2020 we decided to focus for the present study on a total of 12 profiles belonging to ecologist activists, groups or organizations (such as @ecoinventos, @reducewastenow, @aboutenvironment, @theplasticfreepeople, @thezerowasteguide, @greenpeace and @ecologistasenaccion), chosen due to their status as the most prolific in terms of memetic spread and production. Within these accounts we selected a sample of 50 memetic images for the narrative-mythological analysis. The criterion for selection was that they could be identified as memes by their style and replicability. Moreover, in the selection process, we realized that many of them (20 out of the 50 images selected) presented a binary opposition narrative. Hence, we centred our analysis on this subgroup of 20 images, since this “binary opposition” format is a well-established and recognized cultural form in mythological structures (Lévi-Strauss, 1987).

To analyse the corpus of environmental memes, we used Daiute and Lightfoot’s (2004) concept of narrative analysis, which presents an analytical model in social sciences based on narratives as cultural forms for sorting experience in a meaningful way, following certain schemes, scripts or patterns, in which the action is developed, including a root metaphor that organizes the story thematically. Our analysis is based on memes as containing a story and narrative structure.

On the other hand, in order to undertake a mythological reading of these narratives, we have taken into account the elements used to construct myths, as argued above. These are: a) the narratives have a highly symbolic component (condensed into images) related to beliefs that are considered as truths; b) the type of narrative explains a given state of things in the world (past, present and future); c) they establish a link between this order of things and human experience, generally a correlation between the cosmic, social and personal-corporeal orders, where disorder in one of the terms leads to disorder in all the others; d) they provide knowledge or teachings for action.

Analysing these meme-based micronarratives allowed us to explore the climate change-related myths emerging on social media: existing narratives regarding the future, threats and possible outcomes, and the actions and attitudes proposed as suitable ways of combating them.

Analysis and results

The images in our corpus use the meme format, containing a minimum of an image, generally a photo, and an accompanying text, structured around a combination of two images organized as binary opposition. Firstly, we establish that the visual contrast of two ideas is a very economical way of telling a story, facilitating the understanding of complex problems, while helping to express a moral value associated with each of the terms and a future-oriented temporality or change in dynamic.

Within this scheme, the most frequent narrative structure in our corpus, is that of “before-after”, characterized by introducing a time vector toward improvement or deterioration. It is a very popular format on the social media as it is used to show change (generally for the better) in the state of a person or thing ² . The discursive strategy uses the binary opposition, showing antagonistic images from right to left or from top to bottom. The text may vary in length, but it is the image that carries the narrative weight.

In this first typology, temporality is explicit in the text: “then and now”, “how it started and how it’s going”, “old me and new me”, and so on. These forms of temporality indicate a change in the state of things. They can be very specific, providing the date in years, or very vague and abstract (referring to planetary change); they can also be indeterminate or refer to personal or day-to-day change (Figure 1).

The first image shows a change over time: from desertification to a green, irrigated landscape, thanks to the action of the photographer Sebastião Salgado and his wife Lélia Deluiz Wanick. The second is a projection into the future, toward future outcomes, while the third and fourth show positive change in the personal sphere (presenting everyday objects and food) by learning more sustainable habits. This type of meme (“old me-new me”) suggests that changes at the personal level affect the planet and the environment. Appealing to identity, the “me” is transformed into a more responsible “other me”, seeking to generate empathy and serve as an example.

Secondly, this form of planetary transformation through people’s positive action also has a collective dimension and places us in the social order through coordinated action. These are the “how it started, how it’s going” type of meme. In the image from the @reducewastenow account (Figure 2), on the left we see a dirty beach, but on the right, we see the clean beach after a group of people have mobilized to remove the rubbish and the return of certain animal species.

The @greenpeace image shows how the struggle has grown (before there were few us, now we are many). In this case, the images on the “before” side show a worse situation than those on the “after” side. These two examples show that our actions bring about improvements (first image) and how the environmental struggle is spreading (second image). The third example of this type shows negative change using the same text. This example is interesting in that, unlike the previous two, it does not contain a human figure, hence the message refers to people’s lack of action: this is how things will develop and what will happen if we do not take action.

In the third typology, the change of state is presented by contrasting two orders of things, such as an image of a polluted city and an idealized image of nature. Once again it appeals to the individual: in the first image of the @ecoinventos account, pollution is the product of many (or possibly of people other than the individual in the scene) but just one individual appears to have carried out the action, strengthening the idea that “your” action has a global effect on the planet (implying both individual and collective responsibilities and benefits). The second image presents the negative impact of humans compared to animals (where would you prefer to live?) The next image is possibly more conceptual, as it uses infographics, superimposed over an image of nature. The pictograms are, respectively, pyramidal (evoking the “I”, ego, the individual) and circular, a much more harmonious shape (appealing to “eco”, the circular economy and, thus, nature). In these cases, there is not always a clear temporal vector, but a dilemma (Figure 3).

The fourth typology raises the degree of abstraction, the following images contrast cause and effect, presenting the dilemma of: if you do something, you’ll have to be held accountable for it. In other words, your actions have consequences. Once again, the effect of a collective process is personalized. In both the first image, “envenena el río y el río te envenenará a ti” [if you poison the river, the river will poison you], and in the second (if you prioritize money over the environment you’ll become just as polluted), industrial pollution or the capitalist economic systems are transformed due to human irresponsibility and greed. In both cases, a single image condenses the contrast made explicit in the text (Figure 4).

Finally, these contrasts can also present a dilemma through a good solution-bad solution dichotomy. Examples of this are shown in Figure 5, where two images are used to express good and bad practices for the planet, through visual contrast. This contrast between two mutually exclusive terms or ideas establishes an aspirational narrative that is projected towards a desirable future, or how things should be. It is suggested as personal choice, appealing to taste and aesthetics.

To end, Figure 6 shows some examples of images which construct a narrative based on different temporalities and implying causality, but involving very different actors and emotional tones. The first one is referring to the near past and the near future, and uses a meme from The Simpsons; it is Homer Simpson who throws plastic into the sea and suffers the apocalyptic consequences. This is a clear example of a popular meme adapted to the environmental issue, copying the pattern of an iconic meme (such as the use of two shots from the singer Drake’s Hotline Bling video of the second image). In the memes analysed, a humorous tone is only used on a few occasions, to ridicule inappropriate behaviour, highlight the difficulties and contradictions in activists themselves, or report a “false belief” such as negationism of climate change.

The third image, using the same before-and-after format, the time scale is much shorter, in the present, and there is total individualization (it is “me” whose heart is broken). This identification with the individual “me” includes the maximum emotional impact, linking the pain of the tree to that of the self.

Whatever the case, besides the degree of humour used, the visual presentation of the set of images analysed here is typical of memes in general: simple composition; predominance of message over aesthetics; rehashed, or hastily created images; and short but powerful texts. Nevertheless, as we have observed in our corpus of study, seriousness, and a relatively careful image predominate in memes with environmental content on Instagram, differing from popular memes on other social media. We also have seen that, in the different types found, this contrast between two mutually exclusive terms or ideas establishes a temporal narrative and a future prediction (improvement or deterioration), implying a cause-and-effect relationship and a moral judgement on our action in the world, moving us toward a transformation in the state of things through personal action.

Discussion and conclusions

One characteristic that is common to the meme-based narratives analysed here is that the root metaphor, topic or fundamental truth expressing the myth is related to the end of the world (eschatological myth), in the sense that climate change and environmental degradation will lead us to an irreversible catastrophe caused by human activity, but which can still be reversed by a change in our behaviour at the planetary level and as a species (“redemption” is possible).

Another feature of these memes is that they involve moral judgement, which in some cases becomes normative (imperative), expressed powerfully in texts such as “what they want you to think, what you ought to think”. Thus, the myth is built on a truth (climate change) which is the consequence of collective actions related to corporations, industries and governments, our economic systems and environmental policies, but the myth personifies them in individual action (you poison the river) that demands an individual response (you must put an end to this). We will see below that, regardless of type, all the memes analysed imply that individual action is part of collective action. If each of us commits to change, we will bring about positive transformation. This personal involvement is what connects the cosmic order or disorder to the personal order, and it gives meaning to human action, which is where the power of mythological narrative lies.

However, the future-oriented environmental myth does not directly denounce the institutions or corporations that soil the river or beach; they address the individual instead. We will only avoid disaster through the sum of individual actions, whether this be cleaning rivers and beaches, or transforming our personal lifestyle and changing our consumption habits (“old me, new me”). Social order is then re-established by addition.

This leads to the idea of memes as tools which, despite their informal and sometimes jokey appearance, help approach topics considered as serious and important in the environmental, social and even political agenda, such as the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations for Sustainable Development. This seems to question the idea in Vitiuk et al. (2020), whereby memes entertain and mitigate stress caused by problems in daily life, conflicts, risks and uncertainties. We agree, nevertheless, with Nowak (2016) and other authors, stating that the creation and spreading of memes, beyond entertainment, serves to spark debate and discussions about reality and being informed. Memes can be considered products of participatory digital culture, characterized by producing and interchanging their own creations and the belief of their participants in the importance of their contributions.

In the cases analysed here our analysis shows that, memes take these conflicts, risks, problems and uncertainties and, far from distancing us from them to provide peace of mind, they make them the centre of attention so that, firstly, we react (emotionally, rationally or affectively) and then reflect on them, thereby pushing us toward practical action through ideological or attitudinal change. It must be stated that this is a form of activism that starts from an individual commitment, aimed at individuals rather than groups or institutions, thus constituting a new type of political action, “from me to you”, neatly digital.

According to our results, the “visual activism” discussed here clashes with the idea offered by other authors on the same concept. Indeed, most studies on visual activism refer to it as specific artistic practices supporting specific causes, as in Cozen (2013), whose work most closely relates to our case and examines images produced by activist artists focusing on climate change. The same occurs with other authors, such as Demos (2016) who, although defining visual activism as politically targeted visual practices calling for social, political and economic change, also interprets it from the artistic perspective. However, our study sees visual activism as going beyond art, thus challenging the views of these authors and broadening the concept to cover all visual manifestations of digital folklore that contribute to the same cause, regardless of authorship, degree of artistry or aesthetics, as is the case of social media memes, which are clever, sometimes humorous, motivational and even educational.

To conclude, the structure of the eschatological myth is reused in environmental activism to naturalize the truth of the movement, making it self-evident while imbuing it with dramatic tension that implicitly leads to resolution. Thus, mythological narrative for climate change through social media memes, firstly, contributes to creating new spaces for participation and, secondly, helps in understanding complex topics through concise visual impact, promoting and calling for action through emotional and personal involvement. (1)