WWF's Earth Hour Campaign: ‘Global Village' or Eco-Imperialism?

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dc.contributor.advisorChuma, Wallace
dc.contributor.authorChao, Eileen
dc.date.accessioned2020-09-10T08:05:13Z
dc.date.available2020-09-10T08:05:13Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.date.updated2020-09-10T08:04:55Z
dc.description.abstractThe rapid spread of digital information and communication technologies since the turn of the century has led to renewed debates about globalisation and the power of new media to connect users across national, political and cultural borders. Environmental campaigns like WWF's Earth Hour, which touts itself as “the world's largest grassroots movement for the environment,” often adopt a utopian view of globalisation that celebrates what Marshall McLuhan termed the ‘global village'. While this global ethos might be useful in engaging the publics in collective action, this article argues that the way Earth Hour and similar campaigns actively construct representations of a single global village overlooks the lived inequalities between and among peoples within this imagined community. This article explores this tension using a quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods approach that combines a semiotic analysis of the Earth Hour 2019 promotional video, social media analysis of the use of #Connect2Earth hashtag among South African Twitter users, and in-depth interviews with current and former WWF-South Africa employees. This strategic approach is designed to juxtapose socially constructed representations of Earth Hour with on-the-ground user engagement in South Africa, and then triangulating these findings with qualitative interviews. The dissertation aims to explore the research question: In what ways does WWF's Earth Hour embody Marshall McLuhan's ideal ‘global village' and in what ways might it engender a form of eco-imperialism? This research question is operationalised through three subquestions: What kind of environmentalism do global environmental campaigns like Earth Hour promote? How do audiences in South Africa engage with Earth Hour on social media? How do local WWF of ices adapt global environmental campaigns to suit local audiences? This research contributes to emerging scholarship, rooted in environmental justice and decolonial studies, that is critical of mainstream environmental movements not to discourage environmental consciousness but to ultimately reformulate it.
dc.identifier.apacitationChao, E. (2020). <i>WWF's Earth Hour Campaign: ‘Global Village' or Eco-Imperialism?</i>. (). ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32207en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationChao, Eileen. <i>"WWF's Earth Hour Campaign: ‘Global Village' or Eco-Imperialism?."</i> ., ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32207en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationChao, E. 2020. WWF's Earth Hour Campaign: ‘Global Village' or Eco-Imperialism?. . ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32207en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Master Thesis AU - Chao, Eileen AB - The rapid spread of digital information and communication technologies since the turn of the century has led to renewed debates about globalisation and the power of new media to connect users across national, political and cultural borders. Environmental campaigns like WWF's Earth Hour, which touts itself as “the world's largest grassroots movement for the environment,” often adopt a utopian view of globalisation that celebrates what Marshall McLuhan termed the ‘global village'. While this global ethos might be useful in engaging the publics in collective action, this article argues that the way Earth Hour and similar campaigns actively construct representations of a single global village overlooks the lived inequalities between and among peoples within this imagined community. This article explores this tension using a quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods approach that combines a semiotic analysis of the Earth Hour 2019 promotional video, social media analysis of the use of #Connect2Earth hashtag among South African Twitter users, and in-depth interviews with current and former WWF-South Africa employees. This strategic approach is designed to juxtapose socially constructed representations of Earth Hour with on-the-ground user engagement in South Africa, and then triangulating these findings with qualitative interviews. The dissertation aims to explore the research question: In what ways does WWF's Earth Hour embody Marshall McLuhan's ideal ‘global village' and in what ways might it engender a form of eco-imperialism? This research question is operationalised through three subquestions: What kind of environmentalism do global environmental campaigns like Earth Hour promote? How do audiences in South Africa engage with Earth Hour on social media? How do local WWF of ices adapt global environmental campaigns to suit local audiences? This research contributes to emerging scholarship, rooted in environmental justice and decolonial studies, that is critical of mainstream environmental movements not to discourage environmental consciousness but to ultimately reformulate it. DA - 2020_ DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Globalisation KW - WWF KW - Earth Hour KW - Twitter KW - Network Society KW - First World Environmentalism KW - Eco-Imperialism KW - environmental communications LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PY - 2020 T1 - WWF's Earth Hour Campaign: ‘Global Village' or Eco-Imperialism? TI - WWF's Earth Hour Campaign: ‘Global Village' or Eco-Imperialism? UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32207 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/32207
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationChao E. WWF's Earth Hour Campaign: ‘Global Village' or Eco-Imperialism?. []. ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2020 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32207en_ZA
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Film and Media Studies
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.subjectGlobalisation
dc.subjectWWF
dc.subjectEarth Hour
dc.subjectTwitter
dc.subjectNetwork Society
dc.subjectFirst World Environmentalism
dc.subjectEco-Imperialism
dc.subjectenvironmental communications
dc.titleWWF's Earth Hour Campaign: ‘Global Village' or Eco-Imperialism?
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMA
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