Bridging methodologies in multimodal environmental communication research: insights from Instagram data
(2025) 12 ICOM - International Conference on Multimodality — Location: Groeningen (29.October.2025)
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- Abstract
- Environmental communication has evolved into a multidisciplinary field, integrating diverse approaches. However, the need to systematize environmental communication and overcome disciplinary gaps remains critical (Canon et al., 2022). This challenge is particularly evident in research methodologies, where studies often rely on either qualitative methods, as multimodal discourse analysis (Hautea et al., 2021), or quantitative techniques like topic modeling or content analysis (León et al., 2022), to examine environmental communication on social media. This study presents a novel mixed-method research design to analyze environmental discourses in Belgium, France, and Norway shared by environmental opinion leaders on Instagram (Author, 2024), using a large dataset of multimodal posts (N=10123). We propose a three-step analysis to study environmental discourses on Instagram. 1. Automated content analysis: posts were pre-selected based on thematic relevance to the sustainability transition in the food, energy, and transportation themes, using automated labeling. 2. Multimodal Content Analysis: the selected posts were analyzed with a set of 12 open and closed questions to identify trends in environmental discourses across the three countries. 3. Multimodal Discourse Analysis: a subcorpus, derived from the multimodal content analysis findings, was examined in-depth to uncover different layers of environmental communication, such as iconic, plastic, and linguistic signs (Joly & Martin, 2021). This mixed-method approach enabled us to navigate the complexities of large-scale Instagram data: automated content analysis filtered the dataset; multimodal content analysis mapped environmental discourses; multimodal discourse analysis offered deeper insights into environmental narratives in line with our focus themes. We suggest that this methodology offers a comprehensive framework for understanding multimodal environmental discourses and holds potential for broader applications, including scientific or crisis communications. Therefore, we also propose a reflection on the methodological challenges and opportunities encountered in this study, highlighting the advantages and limitations of integrating qualitative and automated methods for multimodal communication research.
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Samofalova, Y., & Catellani, A. (2025). Bridging methodologies in multimodal environmental communication research: insights from Instagram data. 12 ICOM - International Conference on Multimodality, Groeningen.