Browsing by Subject "sustainable lifestyle"

Several studies have stated that social media has the potential to promote sustainable lifestyles. The purpose of this master’s thesis was to study the contents made by “eco-influencers” who make video blogs about sustainable lifestyles on YouTube. This thesis investigated what topics eco-influencers' videos deal with and what kind of means of argumentation are used. The theoretical background included research on sustainable lifestyles and consumption as well as the potential role of social media in promoting sustainable lifestyles. The study was conducted as a qualitative study and the video material was collected from YouTube according to criteria defined by the researcher. The channels of 20 influencers were selected for the final data. From each channel 1-2 videos were selected. At the end, a total of 39 videos were selected. The material was selectively transcribed, and that text served as the basis for the data-driven content analysis. The results show that the contents of the videos emphasize sustainable consumption and responsibility, especially individual responsibility. However, the videos had only a little content about the three most important aspects of a sustainable lifestyle: housing, mobility, and food. According to eco-influencers, sustainable lifestyles are closely linked to the concept of well-being. Sustainable consumption was considered a very important aspect of sustainable living. Eco-influencers mainly use their own experience, opinions, and comparison as a means of argumentation in their videos. Often the arguments were not substantiated with many scientific references. The results suggest that eco-influencers perceive complex sustainability themes as important but want to communicate them in a way that even laypeople understand. This will also make it easier for more non-experts to approach the matter and change their lifestyles. Justifying arguments with opinions and personal experiences can be based on the personal, even entertaining, format of the video blog, or on the fact that experiential knowledge or expertise is valued in social media. Based on the contents of the videos examined in this study, it seems unlikely that they would contribute to great lifestyle changes.