Insta-Awareness. Reconciling neo-liberalism and activism inside and outside the platforms

The paper analyses how activist creators use different strategies to gain attention, engagement and participation on social media. The work is based on 10 interviews with Italian social media activists and the content analysis of 595 posts and reels by the creators themselves. The results show how the creators implement different strategies and levels of adaptation with the logics of the platforms, according to their goal of professionalizing of the digital activism activity. Moreover, the interviewees show that combining the ethical demands of the activist cause with the entertainment logics of the platforms is a laborious task, requiring various mediations and negotiations at the level of practices, identity and values and the support of a network of “off-platform” assets.