Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Non-governmental organizations have been important in addressing issues related to environmental sustainability. The use of social media has provided alternative means to the organisations to reach out, communicate and interact with large number of audiences. Therefore, we need to know more about how NGOs talk about environmental problems on Facebook, the structuring of their message framing in order to achieve their goals. The purpose of this study is to identify the frames Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (ENGOs) used during their different campaigns concerning environmental problems in their Facebook posts.

This study investigates the global Facebook pages of four world-renowned Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations; Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Climate Action Network and World Wide Fund for Nature. The text content of the Facebook post on environmental issues within a period of one year from May 1, 2021 – April 30, 2022 were collected, interpreted and analysed. A total of 195 posts were collected on ENGOs Facebook pages. Using frame analysis on the content, the problems, solutions, themes and overarching frames were identified. Out of the six identified frames; climate justice frame, state responsibility frame, industrial authority frame, people frame, global collaboration frame and media frame, only climate justice frame and state responsibility frame were commonly used by the ENGOs. The analysis suggests that differences exist in ENGOs communication strategies and use of frames due to the organisation’s mission statement and objectives.