Ecolinguistics for and beyond the Sustainable Development Goals (original) (raw)

Print Media Coverage of Environmental Issues in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Ecolinguistic Analysis

JURNAL ARBITRER, 2020

The coverage of environmental issues is of great importance to Moroccan newspapers, namely As-Sabah, Al-Akhbar, and Al-Massae. The present study explores the frequency of articles that covered environmental issues and investigated the newspapers’ professionalism in writing environmental reports on man’s environmental setting violations. The Research was accomplished through the framework of ecolinguistics to categorize and analyze all environmental stories that extended from March to July 2020. The sums of 308 issues of the three newspapers were manually checked to identify the issues reported about environmental problems. The findings revealed that environmental coverage by the three newspapers was feeble. Precisely, only 73 newspaper issues pertaining to the three newspapers contained at least one environmental title. Practically, identified environmental articles were manually searched and treated based on a keyword selection such as environment, forest, animals, water, pollution...

Newspaper coverage of COVID and deaths from hunger and lack of sanitation and clean water

This paper considers potential contributions applied linguists can make towards important real-world issues which demand social engagement and action. One case in point is how applied linguists can contribute towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We provide an illustrative study in which we utilized computer tools to investigate media reporting as a way to promote awareness of basic human needs. The study examined the relative coverage of issues of basic human needs (particularly extreme scarcity of food, clean water and sanitation), and of the COVID-19 outbreak, in four major newspapers from Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and the US. Findings were reported and reasons explored with insights from the literature and professionals working in the media and related sectors. The distribution of media coverage, we argue, reflects not a mere crisis of numbers but a crisis of responsibility and values. This paper, we hope, serves to highlight how applied linguists and language educators can be more socially engaged; they can make a contribution to the wider discussion concerning, among other important issues, the role and responsibility of media in shaping the public’s views and actions on issues that are at the heart of human sustainable development.

The Ecological Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic Infodemic Discourse in Social Media: Ecolinguistic Perspectives

2021

Texts on social media often highlight the Covid-19 pandemic. The text influences the mindset and mode of the readers. The purpose of this study is to describe the potential ecological impacts of infodemics, both constructive and destructive for readers. Data sourced from social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). The method used in this research is a qualitative approach with descriptive methods. The results showed that the ecological impact of infodemic discourse, namely the constructive impact represented by the content, meaning or message can influence the mindset and attitudes of readers to participate in preserving the environment. Positive texts can change negative environmental ethics into positive ones. The destructive impact in the form of excessive use of text, and without clear sources, has an impact on the effects of distraction, mental health, panic buying, confirmation bias and echo chambers, and tends to refuse to protect oneself and heed health protocols, makin...

The Linguistic Dimensions of COVID-19: How the Pandemic Influenced Language and Vice-versa

2024

'The Linguistic Dimensions of COVI-19' takes you on a journey into the intricate relationship between the pandemic and language. Each chapter delves into a set of distinct linguistic aspects, shedding light on the myriad ways in which language has adapted and transformed during these unprecedented times. From the evolution of health communication strategies to the metaphorical framing effect in media discourse. This book invites readers to reflect on the profound role of language in shaping our perceptions, emotions, and behaviors during times of uncertainty. Through a blend of research, analysis, and anecdotes, this book reveals the intricate interplay between language, society, and the challenges of a global pandemic.

Linguistic repercussions of COVID-19: A corpus study on four languages

Open Linguistics, 2022

The global reach of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing localized policy reactions provides a case to uncover how a global crisis translates into linguistic discourse. Based on the JSI Timestamped Web Corpora that are automatically POS-tagged and accessible via SketchEngine, this study compares French, German, Dutch, and English. After identifying the main names used to denote the virus and its disease, we extracted a total of 1,697 associated terms (according to logDice values) retrieved from news media data from January through October 2020. These associated words were then organized into categories describing the properties of the virus and the disease, their spatio-temporal features and their cause-effect dependencies. Analyzing the output cross-linguistically and across the first 10 months of the pandemic, a fairly stable semantic discourse space is found within and across each of the four languages, with an overall clear preference for visual and biomedical features as associated terms, though significant diatopic and diachronic shifts in the discourse space are also attested.

Covid-19 Pandemic and Axiology of Communication: A Study of Linguistic Phenomena

CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research - Zenodo, 2022

This study aims to determine the intensity of the birth of terms and absorption of words related to the topic of the Covid-19 pandemic. The birth of a number of these terms is in line with the incessant news regarding the Covid-19 pandemic which must be immediately disseminated to the public. The obstacles that occur in the news are a number of foreign terms that are not immediately understood by the public. As a result, this condition forces the birth of a number of terms and absorption words that can make it easier for readers to understand the contents of the reading. Data collection was carried out for two years from March 2000 to February 2002. Based on this research, it was found that Indonesian as the state language has its own system or rules that must be obeyed by its speakers. Therefore, all words or terms that enter Indonesia must comply with these rules. To achieve this goal, here the author uses a qualitative descriptive method with a content analysis approach. The data in this study were sourced from written news sources and through TV, YouTube and online news media. regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. This study uses three stages of data analysis, namely the stage of data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of the study found that almost all absorptions (medical, social, economic and political terms. This matching and translation were carried out to fill in the blanks of terms and form their equivalents in order to achieve fast and accurate information delivery.

Covid-19 Insights and Linguistic Methods

3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 2020

The emergence of COVID-19 affects the world population in many ways, resulting in its own specialised discourse. In addition to providing a source of data for analysis, this discourse has also led to a rethinking of multifarious research methods. This section presents a series of articles by scholars from different parts of the world with macro-and micro-linguistic perspectives, ranging from corpus-based analysis to content analysis studies. At the macro level, these scholars explored ways through which government bodies communicate with the public. Official announcements, parliamentary proceedings and COVID-19-related corpora are examined and a comparative textual analysis between the Malaysian and British governments is provided. At the micro level, the scholars analysed selected corpora with lexical, semantic, and discourse foci and personal posts of short narratives and photos to encapsulate meanings from human life and experience. The main takeaway from these studies is the application of a wide range of methods for different focus and perspectives that may be customised to the researcher's unique context.

An Analysis of the Language Used To Communicate Information on Climate Change

This article analyzed the language used to communicate information on climate change. The discourse of climate change is not inclusive of the majority of people of the Sub Saharan region with specific reference to Zimbabwe. This is due to its technical and ambiguous nature. A variety of scientific documents, magazines, technical journals and briefings were analyzed. The methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Document Analysis were used to analyze various texts in order to uncover the possible hidden meanings of a variety of linguistic aspects. It was noted that linguistic aspects like metaphors of fear and panic, hedging techniques and compounding are frequently used. Climate change communication is loaded with technical jargon which places the ordinary people, particularly in Zimbabwe in a dilemma. For that reason the climate change discourse creates information and knowledge gaps between those from the developed countries and the developing countries. Interviews were administered on policy makers, environmentalists, educationists and other stakeholders. Qualitative data was analyzed using grounded theory to describe and explain the elicited responses from stakeholders in order to complement data from textual analysis. It is recommended that there should be a lot of media awareness, education and training on climate change issues in Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwe, the private sector and NGOs should develop training programmes to communities in indigenous languages which are relevant to their needs. Issues of ideologies are also quite prevalent in climate change communication.

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Newspaper Coverage and Reader Response to Covid-19 Reports

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities

Studies attest to the importance of official languages in health communication in multilingual societies. However, the challenge lies in using an official language in ways that enable both majority and minority language speakers to identify with their sociocultural orientations when using a lingua franca. With the emergence of Covid-19, this challenge has come to the forefront following surveys on citizen responses to health messages. The study examines the themes, narrative viewpoints, language modes of newspaper reports on Covid-19, and reader responses to these reports. We aim to determine the implications of reader response on the credibility, severity, and transmissibility of Covid-19. The contents of three Nigerian newspapers (The Guardian, Punch, and Premium Times) were analyzed using quantitative and discourse analysis. The results showed that the themes of newspaper reports focused on challenges, progress made, preparedness, and containment measures. The language mode was p...