Campaigning for the Future and the Future of Campaigning: A Case of Greenpeace International and the Emergence of New Environmental Communication Landscapes

Given continuing developments within the communication landscape and the need for decisive and effective climate action, this thesis examines the evolving campaign communication strategies of Greenpeace International. It employs an online ethnography of its Alternative Futures campaign: a campaign focused on challenging Western economic and political models through promoting alternative futures that are shaped by equitable and collaborative societies committed to environmental justice. Overall, this thesis provides unique research insights into Greenpeace’s inner workings, organisational structure, and public communication strategies.

Through an exploration of the internal structure and organisation of Greenpeace International and the Alternative Futures campaign, the thesis examines how these internal structures, cultures and practices have impacted the design and external framing of the campaign. It focuses on three key campaign actions: Davos, Gen-Z TikTok and Dare to Dream artificial intelligence. In doing so, it provides unique research insights into how social movements are navigating the employment of new digital technologies, such as TikTok and generative artificial intelligence, to publicly frame campaign messages and motivate climate action. Throughout, frame analysis, corpus linguistics, and multimodal social semiotic analysis are employed to critically analyse interviews with key Alternative Futures staff, campaign documents, Instagram and TikTok posts, observations of core team meetings, and Slack channel messages.

The thesis critically reflects upon the evolution and practices of an environmental campaign at a time of multiple, intersecting crises. It addresses how Greenpeace International is navigating urgent calls for future climate action and is adapting its role within a time of transformation and changing dynamics within the media communication landscape.