"Wildlife Conservation" in Media

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION Media Texttype - Textual Analysis

April 13, 2016

BE AWARE and TAKE ACTION

2016 NATURE

1.00 AU from Sun

A Textual Analysis on WEBSITE, INTERVIEW & PODCAST

ABOUT

How does Media Portray the topic of Wildlife Conservation

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

Wildlife Reserves Singapore Texttype: Webpage http://www.wrs.com.sg

Nowadays, more and more people are involved in Wildlife conservation and some are committed to protecting the world’s wild places and wildlife. Wildlife conservation societies and organizations have a bold vision for a better future for the wildlife and the environment.

Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) is the holding company of four award-winning attractions, including the Singapore zoo, bird park and safaris.

Their WEBSITE provides detailed information about the four Wildlife Reserves in Singapore, including activities, ticketing, education, volunteering and membership. The website of “Wild Reserves Singapore� is about fostering conservation and educating visitors about animals and their habitats.

The website welcomes people from all around the world, of different ages, from different countries, especially those who are interested and passionate about wildlife conservation.

Tourists are one of the website’s TARGET AUDIENCES as the website provides the tourists a thorough introduction about the events and activities that are taking place in Singapore’s wildlife reserves. There are colorful pictures and simple but meaningful quotes about wildlife conservation. The educational and entertaining activities for kids are shown on the front page. Therefore, more specifically, the target audience is most likely to be families with parents and children who are interested in wildlife and parents whom hope to evoke their children’s awareness and interests about conservation.

The creator of the website wishes to attract tourists to visit the Singapore Wildlife reserves and evoke an awareness and more attention among the public about Wildlife conservation. The website acts as a guide that leads people to get involved in protecting the wildlife and the environment step by step.

The

TONE

of the text is mainly encouraging and sometimes

informative. In parts where detailed information should be provided, the tone of the text becomes informative and straight-forward. However, there are also pronouns such as “our” and “your” in these informative lines that makes the audience feel included and welcomed. Phrases that appear consistently throughout the website such as “join us”, “get involved” and sentences such as “lend us a helping hand” all have an inspiring tone that gently pulls the audience towards the huge family of wildlife conservation and encourages the audience to take action.

The audience comes away with a sense of enlightenment of knowing what they can experience in the Singapore wildlife reserves and how they can make contribution towards wildlife conservation as an individual.

The webpage’s design is consistent throughout the entire website. The logo – “Wildlife Reserves Singapore” always appears on the top of the webpage, along with the logos of Singapore zoo, bird park and safaris. Sometimes, there will be two WRS logos (Figure 1) appearing on the same webpage simultaneously. The logo helps the audience identify the website he or her is on and what is the website about. The repeated appearance of logo makes “Wildlife Reserves Singapore” more memorable and identifiable. It also emphasizes that the website is not simply introducing the Singapore zoos and safaris, but about the importance of Wildlife Reserves and individual involvement in Wildlife conservation.

Secondly, the images on the website are also well chosen to serve special purposes. For example, there is a picture right above the link of “Our Local Activities” about a “frog event”. Instead of uploading the picture of a frog that may be disliked by some of the audiences, the creator of the website uploaded a photo of happy kids with charming smile (Figure 2), who are attending the activity.

When a parent sees the image, he or she will immediately see the smiley face of the children and will be persuaded that such activity can bring happiness to their child or children.

The creator of the website also plays with WORDS to attract the audience. The phrase “Tattoo the Tortoise” (Figure 3) used to describe a series of video clips is an example of the use of alliteration.

A rhythm is created to make the video sound more interesting, thus attracting more audience to watch the video and develop an awareness about tortoise conservation.

Right beside the “Frog event” is a quoted phrase “Leap Here”! (Figure 4) Leaping is often associated with frogs. The creator makes a humorous connection between the audience and the animal friend they will encounter together to create a humorous and funny effect, thus attracting the audience to click on the links and find out more about the event.

The creator also uses contradicting words and sentences to evoke the reader’s curiosity. For example, there is a quote written in white font in a black square, saying “The lucky ones die first”.

(Figure 5) Right beneath the quote is a yellow bar saying: “Change their fate”. When the audience reads the quote, they might wonder how come luckiness is associated with death. Then, automatically the audience who are interested will look for answers somewhere around the quote and when they see the highlighted bar that can lead them to the answers, they will certainly click the link to learn about ways to save the dying animals.

The text has all of the common STRUCTURAL

FEATURES

of a website. There are links with commonly accepted words such as “contact us” and “get involved”. The content of the website is written in concise paragraphs with sentences that can be easily understood. Some content is bulleted with numbers and points such as the four ways to volunteer at Wildlife Reserves Singapore, which are clearly listed with a clause (e.g. “be a docent”) after the numbers and a few sentences concisely introducing the event. (e.g.

“Docents are also known as our volunteer rangers. They excite visitors with tools of engagement ranging from animal specimen.”) These introductions are written in second person perspective that makes it sound not only like guidance but more like a conversation between the creator of the webpage and the audience.

There are also some other unique structural devices applied on the WRS website. The formatting of links is particularly meaningful. The links of ticketing and education are put together in parallel. (Figure 6) It is set as a reminder for the audience that visiting the zoo is fun, but educating the public about wildlife conservation is the ultimate goal. “Ticketing” might be the key to the front door of the zoo, but education for awareness and inspiration is the key to the children’s positive development and the better future of wildlife and their habitats.

Wildlife conservation is about protecting and preserving wildlife and their habitats. Using a variety of structural and stylistic devices, the creator of the website of Wildlife Reserves Singapore successfully captures the audience’s attention and evokes the audience’s interests in taking part in wildlife conservation.

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION A brief interview with ravi corea Texttype: Interview https://elephantconservation.org/a-brief-interview-with-ravicorea-of-the-sri-lanka-wildlife-conservation-society/

Wildlife conservation is a universal topic. Organizations and societies that aim to protect wildlife and their habitats are constantly looking for experienced conservationists to share their experiences and ideas about wildlife conservation with the public. The non-profit, charitable organization International Elephant Foundation, published a brief, embedded email interview with Ravi Corea, the president of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS), on their website.

The INTERVIEW is originally conducted by Quotient Travel Planner, a travel agency based in Singapore. The interview is mainly about Ravi Corea’s experiences and knowledge about Wildlife Conservation.

The publishers of "International Elephant Foundation.org" and the Quotient Travel Planner have different PURPOSES in publishing the interview with Ravi Corea. Hence, their target audiences are possibly different. The Quotient Travel Planner aims to provide the audience a highly-personalized and unique holiday, while “International Elephant Foundation.org" is possibly attracted by Ravi Corea’s association and interaction with elephants.

One common purpose both the publisher and the author of the interview have is to encourage people to be involved in Wildlife Conservation by publishing an interview that shows Corea’s passion for creatures in the wild, devotion to helping communities co-exist with wildlife and recommendations for a meaningful experience in Sri Lanka. In the introductory paragraphs of the interview, it says “Participants in the seven-day experience can look forward to immersing in Sri Lanka’s great outdoors, learn about conservation measures and perform tasks associated with elephant well-being…” We can deduce that the purpose of “International Elephant Foundation.org” in selecting this interview is to inform the audience what they can do to help the elephants as an individual who may not be very experienced and professional with wildlife conservation.

The AUDIENCE of the interview can be everyone who is interested in wildlife conservation or particularly elephant conservation.

However, the target audience is possibly families with kids above ten years old, who are searching for meaningful trips for holidays or students and young adults who are trying to make a difference by volunteering or attending a research program. It can be deduced that the target audience should be at least ten years old because working on tasks out in the field and interacting with big mammals which are relatively dangerous for younger kids.

In the introductory paragraphs, it says “At the age of 13, he became a member of the Young Zoologists’ Association of Sri Lanka and also involved himself in organizations such as Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka and the World Wildlife Fund.” (Quotient Travel Planner) Therefore, it can be deduced that by mentioning the young age of Ravi Corea when he first got involved in wildlife conservation organizations, the Quotient Travel Planner is encouraging young teenagers around age 13 and above to get involved in protecting wildlife and inspiring them with an example of a young teenager who has made successful achievement in wildlife conservation.

TONE

The overall of this interview is relatively informal because of the conversational nature of an interview. The responses of the interviewee are written in first person perspective and the questions asked by the interviewer is written in second person perspective. By formatting the text in this interactive way, the audience seems to be witnessing communication between the interviewer and the interviewee. The audience might feel more involved in the discussion.

The tone of the creator becomes a little more informative and semiformal when writing the introductory paragraphs in order to provide the audience a concise and clear introduction to the interviewee, to give the audience knowledge about who is answering the questions they might have about the subject matter. Despite the conversational nature of an interview, the tone of the interviewee --- Ravi Corea --- changes often, from relatively rational to relatively emotional.

The tone of the interviewee largely depends on his identity, the subject matter he is discussing and the question he is answering. For example, Ravi Corea is the president of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS). Being a public figure and a VIP of wildlife conservation, he needs to be precise with his word choice and naturally, his tone might be a little more rational compared to other interviewees.

For example, when answering the question about the biggest misconception participants of SLWCS’s wildlife adventure programs have, Ravi Corea answers: “Most people don’t seem to realize that to conserve, wildlife resources are needed: financial, equipment, personnel, tools and communities.” His tone becomes serious and earnest. Corea lists the important resources needed for wildlife conservation one by one in a clear manner. He tries to emphasize the importance of preparation and engagement. Therefore, there is a sense of formality in dialogues.

The interview is about Ravi Corea’s experience and knowledge about wildlife conservation and the topic is exactly where his passion lies.

Therefore, his tone is passionate, hopeful, nostalgic and even poetic at times. For example, sentences like “the colors that light up the dawn sky never fails to amaze me” and “once I call it a day I will head to my room and drift off to sleep amidst the sounds of nocturnal animals”.

His poetic and nostalgic tone sounds like he is telling a beautiful story.

In this way, Corea’s answer catches the audience’s attention and evokes the audience’s interests about the process of conserving wildlife.

This interview has almost all of the COMMON STRUCTURAL FEATURES of an embedded interview: a title, an introduction, the interview, but not a conclusion. The title is “A brief interview with Ravi Corea of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society”. The interview is clear and straight-forward. The creator of the website adds the adjective “brief” in front of the word “interview” to inform the readers about the length of the interview. This can actually attract more readers because after seeing the word “brief”, there is a larger possibility to have audiences who do not like to read too many words to stop by and click in to read the interview.

The title also states the interviewee’s name and his association with wildlife conservation. His name might not be universally recognized, but the name of “Wildlife Conservation Society” is better known by the world. Therefore, when seeing these two names popping out together, the audience who do not know the interviewee might be persuaded that Ravi Corea is an authoritative, experienced and important figure who can provide trustworthy and reliable information about wildlife conservation. When the audience is feeling assured and persuaded, they will take Corea’s words into consideration, thus the spreading of the messages about wildlife

Interviewee and Interviewer

QUESTION & ANSWER

The way the editor of the interview structures the questions also has its special purposes. The opening question is: Why

and how did you and the SLWCS gear yourselves to focus on the human-elephant conflict? This question highlights Corea’s main focus in wildlife conservation, which is protecting the elephants and its habitats. It also guides the interviewee into the conversation by posing a double question: “why” and “how”, which encourages the interviewee to introduce his source of inspiration about wildlife conservation and how he takes action. This question also acts as a guiding question for the audiences because it is like a brief introduction about the beginning of Corea’s journey with elephant conservation.

The next question is open and casual. It asks: What is a typical day like for you? The content of his answer is not restricted, therefore it allows the interviewee to structure his answers in the way he likes, for example a more casual way that can communicate better with the audience and share what he thinks is important and meaningful.

The last question is asking about Ravi Corea’s favorite place in the world aside from Sri Lanka. After reading Corea’s answers to other questions, the audiences may build up more trust in Corea in terms of the reliability and depth of his words. Therefore, they will be very interested in knowing Corea’s opinion about other places in the world and they probably will listen to Corea’s recommendation. Corea introduces the astounding landscapes and varied wild animals in southern Africa, which may be attractive and fascinating to

The EDITOR of the interview --- someone from “Quotient Travel Planner” --- plays with syntax and his word choice in order to grab the reader’s attention and emphasize some key ideas. For example, the very first sentence of the introduction sounds like a narrative: “Growing up, Ravi Corea passed up electric train sets, remote racing cars and even an air rifle - for visits to the zoo, and books and movies about animals”. Sharing Corea’s unusual childhood experience may evoke the curiosity of the audience and encourage them to continue reading. It may also create some empathy among the audiences who, very similar to him, have chosen a different path in chasing their passion and dream. Therefore, the very beginning of the whole interview effectively hooks and attracts different audiences to read more about the interview.

The CREATOR of the website, the editor of the interview and the interviewee all apply some purposeful stylistic devices to spread their ideas about wildlife conservation more effectively. The website uploaded a photo of Ravi Corea and a group of elephants as the front cover of the webpage. In the photo, Corea is smiling friendly and confidently towards the audience. This creates a welcoming and warm mood for the interview. In addition, Corea is at a dangerous distance from a group of big mammals. This shows that Corea is very experienced in dealing with elephants, which makes him more trustworthy. This short distance also reflects Corea’s relationship with the elephants --- he likes the elephants and is not afraid of approaching them --- which makes him an icon of human-wildlife relationship.

In the next paragraph of the introduction, the editor of the interview plays with SYNTAx to spread his idea: “At the age of 13, he became a member of the Young Zoologists’ Association of Sri Lanka and also involved himself in organizations such as Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka and the World Wildlife fund”. The editor puts the clause “at the age of 13” at the front for special purpose. It emphasizes the young age of Corea when he first got involved in wildlife conservation. It aims to encourage the young audience to take action and assure those who are worrying about their young age that anyone can make a difference for wildlife conservation. The way the sentence is structured sounds like the editor saying: “Ravi joined WRG at 13!

What about you?!”

The editor’s WORD CHOICE also serves a good purpose. Instead of saying “Corea says he loves the wilderness”, the editor uses metaphor --- “Corea professes the wilderness is his Juliet” --- to better express Corea’s endless passion for the nature and the lives living in it. In the first question: “How did you and the SLWCS gear yourselves to focus on the human-elephant conflict.” “Gear” sounds more emphatic and forceful than “prepare”, thus emphasized the importance of having a firm goal and being wellprepared in terms of knowledge and measures. The second last question asks: “What is one off-the-beaten-track experience in Sri Lanka you would highly recommend for tourists”. The editor uses a colloquial language – off-the-beaten-track – that can be recognized by a particular cultural group (e.g. native English speakers) to make the question more flexible to the interviewee and sounds more interesting to the audience. The word “highly” the editor chooses to use shows that such experience is something Corea really enjoys, which ensure the audience who are exceptionally passionate towards wildlife conservation that listening to this recommendation can’t be wrong. This diction effectively grabs the reader’s attention and thoughts.

The CONVERSATIONAL NATURE of an interview results in some realistic oral speech. In Corea’s response to the question “what is a typical day like for you?”, there is a fragment: “And then the village roosters begin” although this sentence is grammatically incorrect, it sounds smooth and even makes the paragraph flows better. Realistic oral speech is inevitable in interviews. It brings the conversational nature of the interview back to the audience after the interview is transcribed, which makes the audiences feel more welcomed and included.

Corea’s response revolves around helping animals and protecting the environment. However, in consideration of the audience’s interests, Corea put a lot of effort in describing the beautiful scenery and atmosphere around his field house in Wasgamuwa. Sentences like “The birds begin to chirp, tweet and sing.”, “The vibrancy and energy of bird’s song is like an inspiring call to wake up, grab your day and make the most of it” and “the rising sun hidden below the horizon barely illuminates the surrounding hills” are very poetic. By displaying the beauty of nature, Corea successfully attracts

the audience’s attention and triggers the audience’s interest or love for the environment.

At times, Corea connects his experience back to the topic of wildlife conservation, for example: “During the walk I’ll explain to the volunteers and visitors the tropical ecosystems, animals and the conservation challenges and issues we need to address”, to remind the audience their duty of protecting the animals and their habitats. Corea also uses a lot of pronouns such as “we” in his response. This makes the audience feel encouraged, for they might think “if I do something or if I join the team, I am able to work with a lot of people”. The feeling of being included, welcomed and doing something together with someone that has the same passion results in a growing

interest in getting involved in field works of wildlife

In conclusion, the creator of the website elephant.foundation.org, the editor of the interview from “Quotient Travel Planner” and the interviewee Ravi Corea all uses a variety of structural and stylistic devices to achieve several purposes. They all emphasizes the idea that wildlife conservation is an international issue with no boundaries or restrictions.

They have all effectively encouraged the public to get involved in protecting wildlife with wildlife conservation communities and societies or make a difference as an individual.

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION "eyes on conservation" bonus episode Texttype: Podcast http://wildlensinc.org/film-projects/eyes-on-conservation/eoc-podcast/

There are many different ways a message can be spread around the world; one creative way is to create a

PODCAST.

Wildlife conservation is the practice of protecting wildlife and their habitats. The goal is to ensure that nature will be around for future generations of both humans and animals to enjoy.

The Wild Lens’ Eyes on Conservation program aims to create a community of biologists and filmmakers who care deeply about the health of our planet’s ecosystem. Creative storytelling is the heart of their mission. Aside from films, the website also creates entertaining and informative podcasts where compelling stories are told to reach and motivate their audience. The podcasts bring the audience engaging conversations about a vast array of wildlife conservation with perspective of the biologists, researchers and citizen scientists who are working to address these conservation issues.

The “Voting for Conservation” bonus podcast episode is a sixminute mini episode the podcaster uses to present his opinions on the importance of voting on conservation issues. In this podcast release, the content revolves around one of the major environmental issues --- climate change --- which will undoubtedly create catastrophic effects on both human communities and wildlife species.

The podcast targets audiences who are passionate about the topic of wildlife conservation, who are interested in knowing ways to address the climate change issue and most importantly, who have a habit of listening to podcasts.

At the beginning of the podcast, the podcaster explains to the audience the reason he published this short, mini episode instead of piecing together a long and complete episode. It can be deduced that his main target audiences are those who listen to almost every episode of the Eyes on Conservation podcast.

The podcaster needs to make proper explanation for the changes he made to the episode to those regular audiences who are used to the normal length of the podcast.

Another more specific TARGET AUDIENCE is the listeners in the United States as the podcaster mentions: “We have never elected a leader, here in the US, who is willing to take the very simple step of recognizing the extreme urgency of addressing this issue”. The inclusive words such as “we” and “here” draw in the audience of the US and make this part of the podcast sound more like a conversation with Americans only. The main purpose of this podcast is to inform the audience that voting is a powerful tool in addressing conservation issues, which in this case, is the climate change issue.

The podcast also aims to inspire the audience of what they can contribute to wildlife conservation as an individual no matter how far-reaching the issue might be, as well as encouraging the audience to engage in the natural world.

Spoken text can be formal like that of a speech but it also can be conversational depending on the text type and the subject matter.

The TONE varies in this particular podcast however, for most of the time it is conversational and casual due to the relatively informal nature of a spoken podcast but sometimes informative and straightforward because of the serious subject matter, the climate change issue that threatens the planet. The podcaster has mentioned in the opening statement that the podcast is mainly about his own thoughts on the importance of voting. He says the phrase “I argue� many times.

Therefore, the overall tone of the podcast is subjective.

The audience walks away being reminded of the existence of the climate change issue and being enlightened of what they can contribute to nature. The audiences who are already voting to address conservation issues or creating other small changes for the environment and wildlife conservation are encouraged by the inspiring content of the podcast, that it is possible for an individual to have an impact on a far-reaching global issue.

A podcast mainly consists of an introduction that hooks the audience’s attention and guides the audience into the topic; an innovative, inspiring and elaborated body that revolves around the topic; and, a conclusion that acts as a summary and an emphasis on some specific key points.This Eyes on Conservation podcast mini episode has all of these STRUCTURAL

FEATURES.

The first thing the podcaster says is:

You are listening to a bonus mini episode of the eyes on conservation podcast, in which I will be sharing some thoughts of mine on the importance of voting for conservation.

This one simple sentence clearly states the publication of the podcast and the topic of the podcast. This brings the audience directly into the “conversation” and helps them decide whether they would like to continue listening or not. The word “bonus” makes this podcast episode sound more special, which may attract more interested audience.

The word “mini” also sounds better than “short”. “Mini” gives the audience a feeling that this episode is a concise but still detailed podcast with good quality while “short” sounds more like the episode is condensed and not so detailed.

Speaking of word choice, the podcaster uses a lot of STYLISTIC

DEVICES

to attract the audience and to spread his ideas.

First of all, while recording the podcast, the podcaster pays attention to the cadence of his voice and the pace of his speech.

The volume of his voice rises when he is speaking an important line or a key word in order to catch the audience’s attention, thus making sure they have received the idea the podcaster emphasizes on.

Raising the volume is not the only way to emphasize a point.

Speaking the words of a sentence, a clause or a phrase one by one steadily and clearly can also help to highlight an idea. The pace of his speech remains constant throughout the podcast at a moderate speed. If the podcaster talks too fast, it will be hard for the audience to catch his idea and if he talks too slow, the audience might get bored over time. Therefore, speaking at a steady pace allows the audience to receive the information clearly and eectively.

Secondly, at the end of the podcast, the

IMPERATIVE LANGUAGE is used in sentence such as the verb “use” is put at the start of the sentence which makes the sentence sounds more imperative and obligatory. This firm expression of an idea can have an effective impact on encouraging the audience to take action as the podcaster suggested.

The verb “use” is put at the start of the sentence which makes the sentence sounds more imperative and obligatory. This firm expression of an idea can have an effective impact on encouraging the audience to take action as the podcaster suggested.

Third, posing rhetorical QUESTIONS and reflective questions is also a good way to effectively spread the podcaster’s idea.

A question can automatically catch the audience’s attention in most cases for it evokes the audience’s curiosity and and encourages the audience’s thoughts.

When the podcaster suddenly poses a rhetorical question in the middle of his speech, it can effectively grab the reader’s attention, hence the audience will listen more carefully towards the answer the podcaster provides for the question.

For example, at the start of the podcast, the podcaster asks: “Is

it really possible to have an impact on such a far-reaching, global issue like this?”

The podcaster then provides his own opinion in response this question in a firm and confident manner, which persuades the audience that their vote is a powerful tool in addressing a global issue.

Forth, there is some REPETITION of words in the podcast that successfully grabs the audience’s attention and accentuates the idea.

The word “catastrophic” is used to describe the climate change issue for more than two times. There are some synonyms for “catastrophic”, however, intentionally or not, the repetition of this heavy and impactful adjective actually creates a deeper impression in the audience’s mind and thus highlighting the severity of the climate change issue.

The stylistic devices the podcaster used eectively inform the audience about the climate change issue and the importance of voting for conservation issues.

It encourages and inspires the audience to make contribution and changes for the conservation of our ecosystem, including the wildlife and their habitats.

1.00 AU from Sun

Make A DiямАerence

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION THROUGH for

MEDIA

THROUGH

YOUR HEART