Green ideology in action: exploring the cascade effect strategy in environmental video discourse

Abstract

The 21st century environmental discourse is mainly shaped by Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which strategically employ communication to influence public attitudes toward environmental protection. Central to this discourse is green ideology (Humphrey, 2002), which advocates for ecological sustainability, conservation, and responsible interaction with the natural world. This talk examines how green ideology is realized in discourse, with a particular focus on the cascade effect strategy within environmental video communication. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (van Dijk, 2014), multimodality (Machin & Mayr, 2023), and ecological communication (Luhmann, 1989), it explores the interplay between language, multimodal resources, and ideology in videos produced by Greenpeace and WWF. The case study analysis demonstrates how these organizations construct compelling narratives that embed environmental concerns into public consciousness, influencing perception and driving collective action through verbal and nonverbal means.