Picture-perfect, peaceful, and protected: Canadian national parks’ multimodal discourses and representations of mandates on Instagram
(2020) SKOM12 20201Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- This thesis analyzed multimodal social media communications of a government agency that manages national parks, to study the kinds of discourses that are constructed by national parks agencies through representations of the parks and their nature. Furthermore, it analyzed and interpreted how the discourses relate to the mandate and other missions that the agency must adhere to, which are generally a combination of focusing on nature conservation while also providing visitation opportunities. I analyzed the content of the official Instagram account of Parks Canada, which manages the country’s national parks and cultural heritage. A theoretical and analytical framework combining Discourse Analysis and Social Semiotics have been applied to... (More)
- This thesis analyzed multimodal social media communications of a government agency that manages national parks, to study the kinds of discourses that are constructed by national parks agencies through representations of the parks and their nature. Furthermore, it analyzed and interpreted how the discourses relate to the mandate and other missions that the agency must adhere to, which are generally a combination of focusing on nature conservation while also providing visitation opportunities. I analyzed the content of the official Instagram account of Parks Canada, which manages the country’s national parks and cultural heritage. A theoretical and analytical framework combining Discourse Analysis and Social Semiotics have been applied to perform a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis on @parks.canada and specifically on 79 of their posts published in 2019. Through analysis of the Instagram page’s affordances and the visual and linguistic communications within the posts, four main themes have been identified: National parks are perfect holiday destinations, Covert protection of unspoiled nature, National parks as abstract homelands and Drawing a crowd with empty landscapes. The agency mainly uses their Instagram to encourage visitation of the parks, in similar ways as commercial representations of nature, while discussions of protecting the nature’s ecological integrity and (Indigenous) Canadians’ relation with and influence on the parks are minimal. This limited representation of the parks’ purposes and meaning echoes previous studies, where idealized landscapes and the divide between nature and culture were main representations of (protected) natural areas. It is argued that using the @parks.canada page to communicate more regarding the agency’s other missions and the national parks’ purposes and value besides holiday destinations, could be conducive to give the large Instagram audience a broader understanding of the parks and people’s influence on and responsibility regarding nature. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9032389
- author
- Eiling, Eline LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- National parks, Environmental Communication, Representations, Instagram, Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics
- language
- English
- id
- 9032389
- date added to LUP
- 2021-02-01 09:28:57
- date last changed
- 2021-02-01 09:28:57
@misc{9032389,
abstract = {{This thesis analyzed multimodal social media communications of a government agency that manages national parks, to study the kinds of discourses that are constructed by national parks agencies through representations of the parks and their nature. Furthermore, it analyzed and interpreted how the discourses relate to the mandate and other missions that the agency must adhere to, which are generally a combination of focusing on nature conservation while also providing visitation opportunities. I analyzed the content of the official Instagram account of Parks Canada, which manages the country’s national parks and cultural heritage. A theoretical and analytical framework combining Discourse Analysis and Social Semiotics have been applied to perform a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis on @parks.canada and specifically on 79 of their posts published in 2019. Through analysis of the Instagram page’s affordances and the visual and linguistic communications within the posts, four main themes have been identified: National parks are perfect holiday destinations, Covert protection of unspoiled nature, National parks as abstract homelands and Drawing a crowd with empty landscapes. The agency mainly uses their Instagram to encourage visitation of the parks, in similar ways as commercial representations of nature, while discussions of protecting the nature’s ecological integrity and (Indigenous) Canadians’ relation with and influence on the parks are minimal. This limited representation of the parks’ purposes and meaning echoes previous studies, where idealized landscapes and the divide between nature and culture were main representations of (protected) natural areas. It is argued that using the @parks.canada page to communicate more regarding the agency’s other missions and the national parks’ purposes and value besides holiday destinations, could be conducive to give the large Instagram audience a broader understanding of the parks and people’s influence on and responsibility regarding nature.}},
author = {{Eiling, Eline}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Picture-perfect, peaceful, and protected: Canadian national parks’ multimodal discourses and representations of mandates on Instagram}},
year = {{2020}},
}