Communicating business greening and greenwashing in global media: A multimodal discourse analysis of CNN’s greenwashing video

Abstract

This article explores how knowledge about business greening and greenwashing is communicated in the specialized discourse of CNN's Greenwashing video. Drawing upon a social semiotic approach, the article proposes a model of multimodal discourse analysis to explore how processes of knowledge selection are employed for shaping public awareness and understanding of environmental issues in the context of the greening or greenwashing efforts of businesses. Furthermore, the article discusses how environmental business identities are multimodally represented and communicated in accordance with the potential and constraints of language and images. The article also establishes which semiotic modes are given prominence in the environmental discourse by examining the complex interconnectivity and functional differentiation of these semiotic modes.

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