Discourse of Environmentalism in Visual Media: A Multimodal Analysis of Earth Day Posters from Representational and Compositional Perspective

Abstract

This research examines the ways that environmental discourse is visually produced through examining Earth Day posters from NASA website and applying Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) social semiotic framework. The problem of this research is the environmental challenges which are continuously changing, the historical and symbolic underpinnings of its visual language that must be understood to sustain public interest. In following the growth of Earth Day’s visual image, this research analyzes four earth day poster to identify how visual and verbal elements are combined to make meaning. It has studies two important questions in the context of this research: (1) what are the major environmental topics and graphic symbols represented in Earth Day posters? (2) what are the ways that environmental messages are built when combining visual components, such as color, imagery, and layout design, with textual elements like slogans and language? The study make use of the two metafunctions (representational, compositional), the study reveals how ecological narratives are built using symbols such as bees (collective action), sunflowers (sustainability), marine life, and satellites (technological stewardship) as well as textual elements such as slogans and timelines. From the evidence, it appears that the posters often highlight biodiversity, unity of ecosystems, and cooperation between humans and environment in complimentary colors and active structure of the posters, describing environmental emergencies with the promise of positive changes. Vivid, text-elements, together with graphic design that emphasizes meaning, encourage viewers to take an active part in saving the planet. Scholars state that Earth Day posters are designed to blend different design elements such as color, visual motifs, composition, and textual style to make environmentalism appear as a long-term responsibility that requires international collaboration with a unified multimodal approach to trigger interest and contemplation.