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Abstract

Abstract

The multifaceted character of environmental discourse becomes evident on social media, where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) engage in public environmental discourses. Focused on X/Twitter for environmental purposes, this paper investigates engagement as an interpersonal phenomenon comprising two dimensions: self-presentation and audience projection. It qualitatively and quantitatively analyses 100 X/Twitter posts from WWF and Greenpeace (50 per account) with the tool NVivo 14. Findings reveal how the NGOs rely on verbal (self-mentions, lexical items) and non-verbal resources (emoji and multimedia elements) to present themselves to their audience, whilst exploiting verbal resources (second-person pronouns and directives) to construct their audience. Results underscore how NGOs leverage X/Twitter to assert their own legitimacy and that of their audience as integral members of the environmentalist community.

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/content/journals/10.1075/ld.00189.san
2025-01-07
2025-01-20
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: social media ; Twitter ; X ; engagement ; interpersonality
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