#Makesmthng – consume less, make more : political consumption and sustainable lifestyle on Instagram, a case study of a Greenpeace campaign

Buying less and making instead - through upcycling, creating and repairing things - is the motto of the Instagram account make smthng, a Greenpeace campaign focussing on political consumption to deal with the environmental crisis we are in today. With climate change being one of the most pressing issues of our time, finding effective ways of communicating a more sustainable lifestyle is a very important research area in media and communication studies. While social media are increasingly a part of citizens everyday life and therefore being important for the communication of environmental issues as well as for the creation of online and offline activism it is still questioned if online activism can influence societal and democratic structures. This thesis studies the Instagram account make smthng, promoting environmental activism through anti-consumption worldwide. Through a mixed method approach which consists of a quantitative descriptive step and a qualitative multimodal analysis of the posts of the account, this thesis explores if social media can be a positively influencing tool for political participation and through this for a more democratic society. The thesis contributes to the ongoing academic discussion about the impact social media have on democratic processes, standing against the evaluation of online campaigns not being able to create real participation and being branded slacktivism. Furthermore, the thesis provides insights into how environmental organisations can communicate their cause more effectively using social media. The findings show that make smthng is an innovate campaign with which Greenpeace manages to do something different than before and different from the usual way NGOs use social media. The campaign manages to create a community of makers which enables different forms of online and offline activism. The positive and fun way the campaign frames activism, as well as the focus on fashion and creating, also makes it possible to reach a new group of people who are not already environmental activists