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This advertisement is from ThinkReality, and so this one.
This news feature is from CBS News.
On pages 20 and 22 of your text, you'll notice that Cox argues for a two-part definition of environmental communication. On the one hand, it's pragmatic. That is, communication, such as the ads above, are intended to change or solidify an opinion. Such ads often solicit support for a cause--vote or candidate X or donate money to organization Y. On the other hand, environmental communication is "constitutive." That is, the words and images of the ads appeal to a set of commonplace understandings about the United States and about the natural world. In other words, viewers understand the issue of coal-based energy production by means of these and similar ads. In that sense, language is not transparent but a form of "symbolic action" (20-22).
Review these ads and write an analysis of the the symbolic action in the ads. Coal--after all--is just a rock. But coal is also and inevitably a symbol. How do the ads position this symbol?
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