“Nature needs you”: discursive constructions of legitimacy and identification in environmental charity appeals

Abstract

Abstract This study traces how discursive constructions of legitimacy and identification are enacted textually and visually with respect to environment-oriented causes, such as landscape or species restoration. Such conservation projects actually clash with human economic priorities typical of the Anthropocene. Drawing on models of social trust and assuming the discursive nature of legitimacy and identification, we explore how environmental charity organizations represent their conservation efforts, reproduce sustainability discourses and advocate self-regulatory practices. We use a sample of mission statements and donation appeals by six prominent environmental charities from the UK. Through keyness and concordance analysis, we identify textual strategies that position the prospective donor as a “beneficiary” of environment-oriented actions. We also analyze rhetorical strategies and visual resources that align the aims of the organization with the social imaginaries and emotional dispositions of prospective donors.