This thesis investigates the potential of transmedia storytelling to engage the public in climate action through a detailed examination of the transmedia project “The YEARS Project”. Employing the transmedia design analytical and operational model by Gambarato et al. (2020) and the engagement model by Elizabeth Evans (2019), this study combines both frameworks to develop a new model focused on transmedia activism. The research identifies how the integration of diverse narrative techniques in the project and multimedia platforms can enhance awareness and mobilize action among audiences, whilst also highlighting significant challenges that limit its effectiveness and global reach. Accessibility challenges, such as subscription requirements and language barriers, coupled with a US-centric approach, limit the project's global applicability and restrict content primarily to English-speaking audiences targeting mainly the Global North. Further, the project lacks dedicated community-building platforms beyond social media and clear calls to action within the frame of the project's core, the documentary series. By proposing a model for transmedia activism, this thesis provides valuable insights and strategic guidelines for practitioners aiming to design factual transmedia storytelling projects that drive civic action and thereby enhance the under-researched field of transmedia activism.

This study explores the foundations of US counterinsurgency policy and doctrine in order to better understand the main historical influences on that policy and doctrine and how those influences have informed the current US approach to counterinsurgency. The results of this study indicate the US experience in counterinsurgency during the Greek Civil War and the Huk Rebellion in the Philippines had a significant influence on the development of US counterinsurgency policy and doctrine following World War II through the Kennedy presidency. In addition, despite a major diversion from the lessons of Greece and the Philippines during the Vietnam War, the lessons were re-institutionalized in US counterinsurgency policy and doctrine following the war and continue to have significant influence today, though in a highly sanitized and, therefore, misleading form. As a result, a major disconnect has developed between the “rhetoric and reality” of US counterinsurgency policy. This disconnect has resulted from the fact that many references that provide a more complete and accurate picture of the actual policies and actions taken to successfully defeat the insurgencies have remained out of the reach of non-government researchers and the general public. Accordingly, many subsequent studies of counterinsurgency overlook, or only provide a cursory treatment of, aspects that may have had a critical impact on the success of past US counterinsurgency operations. One such aspect is the role of US direct intervention in the internal affairs of a supported country. Another is the role of covert action operations in support of counterinsurgency operations. As a result, the counterinsurgency policies and doctrines that have been developed over the years are largely based on false assumptions, a flawed understanding of the facts, and a misunderstanding of the contexts concerning the cases because of misleading, or at least seriously incomplete, portrayals of the counterinsurgency operations.