ECOLINGUISTICS AND ADVERTISING: DISSECTING IDEOLOGY IN MEDIA DISCOURSE

Abstract

Ideologies are beliefs about the world which are shared by a group of people or a society which achieve transcendence through language. This study aims to examine the ideology transmitted through the language used in advertisements whether it to be beneficial, ambivalent or destructive through scrutinizing its role in protecting or harming our environment. The study employs Arran Stibbe’s (2021) ‘Concept of Ideology’ from his work Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By (2021) to investigate the nature of discourse used in advertisements with a particular focus on how lexicogrammar, metaphors, and narratives are employed in the language to propagate ideologies. The present study is qualitative in nature which inquires three different domains of advertisement, i.e., addictive products, detergents and skin care products. A convenient sample of 9 advertisements, three from each category, is selected for examining the role of language. The findings highlighted that the advertisements of addictive products, detergents and skin care products are conveying the ideologies of addiction, consumerism and racism respectively through their language. Addictive products’ discourses are ambivalent because they state warning; destructive since they are hazardous for consumption and beneficial because they prohibit from using them. Both skin care products and detergents are destructive because they use harmful chemicals that not only harm human beings but also our ecology. The study is significant in its providing awareness about the diversity of discourses which shape audiences’ perception through certain ideologies and result either in ecological degradation or stability.