Maintaining Previous Objectives Through New Instruments: Digital Activism Greenpeace Turkey “NAe São Paulo” Analysis

Abstract

The tools that traditional societies used to communicate with each other have been replaced by communication technologies today. With the transition into network society, these technological tools have become the center of our lives and caused many transformations in social domains. Social movements that form a collective power by coming together to draw attention to a certain social issue, to resolve conflicting issues have had their share and activists have been in search of alternative action practices along with new communication technologies. Fights of counterpowers in the field in the past have taken on digital structure and generated the conception of digital activism. The present study focuses on the social movements’ use practices of the Internet and the activist studies of Greenpeace, the best-known environmental social movement, on the vessel named NAe São Paulo have been discussed on Twitter. Thirty-four tweets shared between August 3 and September 14, 2022 regarding the NAe São Paulo vessel were taken as a sample and examined through content analysis. Although the research is mainly based on a qualitative content analysis, it has been analyzed in some quantitative aspects. In the light of the analyzes, it has been seen that the new media provides the opportunity to announce the activist actions, raise awareness, organize and act proactively.