Voices for climate change: Analysis of creative public service advertising on environmental issues
Climate change is a pressing issue with life-changing consequences not only for humanity but for all life-forms on Planet Earth. Since much of the current crisis related to climate change is arguably man-made, there has been a growing wake-up call to reverse human activities that are harmful to the environment.
Dr. Foong Ha Yap is Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. She received her PhD in Applied Linguistics from UCLA with a special interest in grammaticalization,studies and the development of pragmatic markers across the languages of Asia. Her published works appear in journals such as Diachronica, Discourse & Society, Journal of Historical Pragmatics,Journal of Pragmatics, Language & Linguistics, Language Sciences, Lingua, Linguistics, Memory &Cognition, Pragmatics, Studies in Language, and Text & Talk. She is currently on the editorial boards of Diachronica, Discourse & Cognition, Chinese Language and Discourse, and Journal of Malaysian Languages and Linguistics, among others.
Abstract
Climate change is a pressing issue with life-changing consequences not only for humanity but for all life-forms on Planet Earth. Since much of the current crisis related to climate change is arguably man-made, there has been a growing wake-up call to reverse human activities that are harmful to the environment. Efforts to promote changes in human behavior through a better understanding about our relationship with Nature has taken a variety of forms. Among these are poetry, novels and movies, often apocalyptic in orientation. Another important form, often with wider audience reach,is public service announcements (PSAs). The present talk examines how PSA videos are constructed to raise public awareness about protecting the environment. Data for our analysis comprise of a series of 13 PSA videos produced by Conservation International for the Nature Is Speaking campaign. Special attention is given to four different analytical perspectives: move analysis, metaphor analysis, fear appeal analysis, and identity (de)construction analysis. These four approaches illustrate some of the innovative strategies deployed in PSAs to engage public involvement in preserving Nature’s delicate ecosystem that supports life on Earth.
