Paper short abstract:

Instagram, as an exclusively visual social media platform, emerged in the past years as a ground where environmental communities formed. This essay proposes an overview on how certain Instagram profiles in this community managed to promote an environmental message and certain European natural sites.

Paper long abstract:

The social media platform Instagram, as all others similar digital grounds, organised itself naturally into virtual communities. Among these there is the so called “nature Instagram”, a part of this platform where only visuals of natural environments are uploaded by the users. This paper will try to analyse how the users, both uploaders and viewers, integrate an environmentalist message into their posts and interactions. At the same time, the impact which these uploads have on promoting an environmentalist message will also be observed. Such posts have a large reach and engagement; they also possess a certain degree of influencing power. Thus the aim of this paper is to observe how these influencers manage to promote an environmental agenda, as well as certain natural sites all over Europe. This will be achieved by a digital ethnography observing the nature of those Instagram profiles, the theme and aesthetics used to convey their message, as well as the digital tools used for promoting it. The stud will focus on a number of “big accounts”, as well as the interactions with smaller accounts and the influence they have on each other.