Eco-Images and Environmental Activism: A Sociosemiotic Analysis.

"Nature never speaks by itself,” least of all in ecological discourses, where the line between brand-marketing strategies and the protection of nature is continually blurred. Strategies employed by activists testify that the crisis of nature is being constantly represented and renegotiated by different social actors. The ever-growing number of unconventional advertising campaigns executed by environmental organizations is a clear sign of the changeable nature of discourses about the crisis of the environment. One of the most interesting and yet unexplored aspects of the mediatization of nature is the continuous evolution of visual communication strategies used by environmental movements to denounce the ecosystem crisis and to influence public opinion. In recent years, we have noted an increase in greenwashing practices: the intentional dissemination of misleading or unsubstantiated information by organizations in order to conceal their abuse of the environment, or to promote vaguely formulated “sustainable practices” and products to present a positive public image. If we focus on the “responsibility” of images in the context of green/greenwashed strategies, two elements become obvious. On the one hand, we can detect the communication strategies adopted by corporations to reassert their environmental commitment. On the other hand, we see the political use of images by ecological movements and organizations, in particular their creative re-appropriation of the visual imagery of sustainability. The imagery used here can be categorized as eco-imagery."