Aktivist, Javisst! : En kvalitativ fallstudie om Extinction Rebellion Svergies kommunikation på Facebook under Noveberupproret 2020

Sammanfattning: Social movements focusing on environmental issues experienced a renaissance in September 2018, and concurrently the environmentally focused social movement Extinction Rebellion was founded. Previous research reveals that social media has become an important tool for social movements for both mobilising and spreading knowledge and information. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine Extinction Rebellion Sweden's strategic communication and work processes during the campaign Novemberupproret (The November revolt), and to identify what characterized the posts on Extinction Rebellion Sweden's Facebook during the campaign. The theoretical frameworks used in this study was Grunig's two-way symmetrical and asymmetrical communication (Falkheimer & Heide 2014), Habermas theory regarding social actions (Falkheimer & Heide 2018) and ultimately semiotics by Barthes (1977). The findings are based on interviews with two members of Extinction Rebellion Sweden, along with a qualitative content analysis and a semiotic analysis. The findings of this study reveal that Extinction Rebellion Sweden mainly focuses, both in terms of strategies and work processes, on content regarding information and knowledge sharing, rather than mobilising content. The empirical material shows that the posts with two-way asymmetrical communication have generated more interaction in terms of likes, comments and sharing on Facebook, which opposes Grunig's theory regarding two-way communication. Further, it is revealed that Extinction Rebellions Sweden's most frequently used communication strategy during Novemberupproret were consciously hidden strategic actions. Lastly the findings show that the movement´s work process during Novemberupproret was built on democratic and collective principles both between Extinction Rebellion Sweden's internal project groups and within the national media group.