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International Youth Movements for Climate Change: The #FridaysForFuture Case on Twitter

Author

Listed:
  • Graciela Padilla-Castillo

    (Department of Journalism and New Media, School of Information Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Jonattan Rodríguez-Hernández

    (Department of Journalism and New Media, School of Information Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are critical pieces of climate change communication. #FridaysForFuture (FFF) is one of the movements with the most coverage. This paper analyzes the network structure generated in Twitter by the interactions created by its users about the 23 September 2022 demonstrations, locates the most relevant users in the conversation based on multiple measures of intermediation and centrality of Social Network Analysis (SNA), identifies the most important topics of conversation regarding the #FridaysForFuture movement, and checks if the use of audio-visual content or links associated with the messages have a direct influence on the engagement. The NodeXL pro program was used for data collection and the different structures were represented using the Social Network Analysis method (SNA). Thanks to this methodology, the most relevant centrality measures were calculated: eigenvector centrality, betweenness centrality as relative measures, and the levels of indegree and outdegree as absolute measures. The network generated by the hashtag #FridaysforFuture consisted of a total of 12,136 users, who interacted on a total of 37,007 occasions. The type of action on the Twitter social network was distributed in five categories: 16,420 retweets, 14,866 mentions in retweets, 3151 mentions, 1584 tweets, and 986 replies. It is concluded that the number of communities is large and geographically distributed around the world, and the most successful accounts are so because of their relevance to those communities; the action of bots is tangible and is not demonized by the platform; some users can achieve virality without being influencers; the three languages that stood out are English, French, and German; and climate activism generates more engagement from users than the usual Twitter engagement average.

Suggested Citation

  • Graciela Padilla-Castillo & Jonattan Rodríguez-Hernández, 2022. "International Youth Movements for Climate Change: The #FridaysForFuture Case on Twitter," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:268-:d:1013402
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David Caldevilla-Domínguez & Almudena Barrientos-Báez & Graciela Padilla-Castillo, 2021. "Twitter as a Tool for Citizen Education and Sustainable Cities after COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Mohammad Daneshvar Kakhki & Vidyaranya B. Gargeya, 2019. "Information systems for supply chain management: a systematic literature analysis," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(15-16), pages 5318-5339, August.
    3. Rachael Walshe & Lisa Law, 2022. "Building community (gardens) on university campuses: masterplanning green-infrastructure for a post-COVID moment," Landscape Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 980-991, October.
    4. Szymkowiak, Andrzej & Melović, Boban & Dabić, Marina & Jeganathan, Kishokanth & Kundi, Gagandeep Singh, 2021. "Information technology and Gen Z: The role of teachers, the internet, and technology in the education of young people," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
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