Fridays for Future – Context
What is Fridays for Future?
Fridays for Future is a global political movement focused on climate-related issues. Also known as the School Strike for Climate, it began with school students skipping Friday classes to participate in demonstrations. The goal is to make political leaders take stronger action in fighting climate change as well as accelerating the transition to renewable energy.
What data did we gather?
We collected the statistics of 100 German-language videos related to Fridays for Future, along with the 10 most relevant comments for each video. This includes the title, upload-time, descriptions, like- and view-count.
Top‑Videos by Views
Likes vs. Views (Top‑N)
Uploads over Time
We used a graph to showcase the amount of videos uploaded in 2019 and 2020. It also includes the protest days in Germany, which explain many of the spikes in video activity.
Wordcloud by keyword occurrence
We generated a WordCloud using keybert based on keywords extracted from the video titles, descriptions and comments.
Heatmap: Keywords per time period
We tracked how often these keywords appeared in the 15 most-viewed videos during three different periods:
01.01.2019–01.06.2019: When the movement first gained attention
01.07.2019–01.12.2019: During its peak momentum
01.01.2020–01.12.2020: After the initial hype subsided
Table (Top‑N by Views)
| # | Titel | Views | Likes | Comments | Upload |
|---|
Conclusion
The results highlight YouTube’s role in supporting the growth of Fridays for Future. Uploads tend to increase around protest days, often leading to higher engagement with the movement. Strategic use of keywords in video titles further amplifies visibility, as shown by the fact that the most-viewed videos across different periods consistently feature overlapping keyword usage.