Postcard Stories That Matter : Documenting Climate Change Through Citizen Voices and Digital Methods

Postcards, often dismissed as quaint souvenirs, are in fact a compelling genre of communication that bridges personal expression and cultural documentation. This thesis explores postcards not merely as nostalgic artefacts but as informal historical records and communicative tools, particularly in the context of climate change. The study is inspired by my project Postcard Stories That Matter emerged from the development of my personal collection of 162 analogue postcards from over 30 countries addressed and sent to me by people across the globe between 2019 and 2023. These postcards, reflecting contributors’ personal experiences of environmental change, demonstrate how individuals across cultures perceive and narrate climate impacts in their everyday lives. The research aims to explore how postcards serve as personal, spatially grounded tools for communicating climate change across diverse cultural contexts through a mixed-methods approach that combines close reading, qualitative analysis, and a spatial research method, as GIS, used to analyse and interpret geographic data retrieved from the postcards. The analysis includes both textual and visual elements, such as language use, imagery, dates, and locations. A key element of the research is the use of ArcGIS StoryMap to develop a digital storymap that visualizes the spatial and thematic dimensions of the dataset, linking postcard content to open climate datasets and satellite imagery. The findings reveal that postcards can serve as grassroots climate testimonies, capturing diverse citizen voices and experiences that are often absent from formal scientific or policy-driven narratives. The study highlights the communicative affordances of the postcard format and its effectiveness in raising awareness about climate change. The thesis concludes with suggestions for future research, including multilingual analysis and network-based approaches to climate discourse.