Take Action Now: Framing Action Requests in Climate Change Advocacy Email Communications

• In Event: How Framing Can Influence Advocacy and Protest

Abstract

Widespread adoption of the Internet as a platform for political participation has fostered the emergence of Internet-mediated advocacy organizations, whose strategic use of the Internet sets them apart from their legacy predecessors. Single-issue advocacy communities have not been immune to this trend, with climate change has been one of the most prolific communities in this regard, giving birth to many such organizations. These issue-specialist organizations share many characteristics with their multi-issue, MoveOn.org-like counterparts—but they also differ in important ways. This article explores the similarities and differences between different types of advocacy organizations within the overlapping environmental and climate advocacy communities. It relies on a quantitative content analysis of mass emails produced by the following organizations: Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, League of Conservation Voters, Energy Action Coalition, Climate Reality Project, 1Sky, and 350.org. The study finds important differences and similarities in strategic Internet use between Internet-mediated and legacy organizations, including: greater emphasis by Internet-mediated organizations on high-threshold, offline actions; greater emphasis by legacy groups on low-threshold, online actions—particularly donation requests; high reliance by both on motivational framing that demands accountability from political elites; and lower reliance on event-driven fundraising appeals by single-issue Internet-mediated groups than their multi-issue counterparts. Implications for the study of Internet-mediated activism, climate communication, and advocacy emails as primary data, are discussed.

Author

• Luis E Hestres, The University of Texas at San Antonio