Seeking Visibility in a Big Tent: Digital Communication and the People’s Climate March

The September 2014 “People’s Climate March” was reportedly the largest climate change mobilization in history. The coalition of organizations behind the march chose a strategy of inclusion: They sought to create a “big tent” for a climate movement. Building on theoretical developments in the literature on digital media and social movements, we used Twitter as a window to observe how march organizers and participants attempted to (a) create a digital space of shared attention intersecting with the on-the-ground event, and also (b) thread together diverse orientations to the climate issue.