Content Analysis of Youth Climate Activism Organizations
This research investigates the approaches taken by youth climate activism organizations in framing the environmental problems that they aim to remedy as well as their proposed solutions. Employing a qualitative content analysis of activism websites, this research examines themes across ten youth-led environmentalism organizations. It addresses the following questions: How do youth climate organizations frame their movement pleas to influence the public? Which climate events do youth-run climate change organizations engage with? Who do they hold responsible for the causes of and solutions to environmental problems? Do they prioritize community and individual level interventions over large-scale government action? The findings reveal a dual emphasis on community-level interventions and government action among the organizations studied. Furthermore, a typology emerged, reflecting dichotomous emotional tones across the websites. Type 1 websites focus on government intervention by organizing large-scale protests in tandem with participating in multinational conferences. In contrast, Type 2 websites prioritize community and individual level interventions by hosting local educational events to encourage personal behavioral changes. I concluded that the organizations strategically utilize positive or negative affect to encourage viewers to advocate for climate action. These findings contribute to our understanding of the emotional drivers of youth climate activism within the broader context of both social movements and climate-related psychological distress.