The role of digital media in the environmental activism

Abstract

The goal of this research is to show the results of the study of the role of social media in digital environmental activism as an example of Georgia. In the last few years there are a few studies which discuss digital environmental activism but this kind of research has not been conducted in Georgia, which emphasizes novelty and relevance. Methods of this study are semi-structured interviews with active users of the social media platforms and a qualitative content analysis of digital environmental activists’ pages on Facebook. As for the research questions, what is the role of digital media in environmental activism? Which social media platforms are used by activists? Which type of the activism is used by Georgian digital environmental activists? According to the results of this study, slacktivism is mainly observed in Georgian social media, when people try to express their position with electronic petitions, express position by avatar frames or using hashtags. There are some platforms on Facebook where environmental activists are united, but until now, there was only 1 case that actively collected citizens on the social media platform – Facebook – movement of “MyCityKills”. As the questioned respondents emphasized, despite the existence of environmental groups or pages on Facebook, it is still passive activism. It was the only case of manifestation of not only environmental activism, but also civil digital activism in general, when thousands of young volunteers mobilized through Facebook and on June 13, 2015, to clean the environment of Tbilisi affected by the flood and help people affected by the disaster.