The Re-contextualisation of Climate Change in Activist Discourse. Counter-narratives and Temporalities in the Web-Documentary Seat at the Table

Arianna Del Gaudio

doi:10.6093/2035-8504/10562

Arianna Del Gaudio University of Naples L'Orientale

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/2035-8504/10562

Keywords: climate change, activist discourse, counter-narratives, new media, web-documentary

Abstract

Activists and NGOs have increasingly used digital platforms to communicate alternative views of climate change science, while concurrently adopting discursive and rhetorical strategies to increase support and promote action. Based on such premises, the web documentary Seat at the Table (2021) recontextualises climate science to inform and persuade laypeople. Yet, it presents an alternative genre for the popularisation of climate-change scientific knowledge. Drawing on Corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis and the Appraisal Framework, the study investigates the re-contextualisation of activists' social practices in web documentaries to provide a space for the analysis of dominant and non-dominant discourses of climate change. Hence, it investigates how climate change is discursively represented and appraised by activists and the so-called “unheard voices” of climate change.

Author Biography

Arianna Del Gaudio, University of Naples L'Orientale

Arianna Del Gaudio is a PhD student in English Language and Translation Studies at the University of Naples L'Orientale. She is part of the research unit involved in the Erasmus+ funded research project “FOM@PLAY - Freedom of movement at play: EU citizens’ identity and transnationaldiscourses”. Her research interests include Climate Change Studies, Corporate Discourse, Postcolonial varieties of English, and Translation Studies. Additionally, she is interested in Corpus Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Systemic-Functional Linguistics.