Date of Award
Winter 11-26-2012
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Carrie Freeman
Second Advisor
Natalie Tindall
Third Advisor
Nathan Atkinson
Abstract
As companies discover the monetary benefits of a positive environmental image, a proliferation of green imaging confounds the public sphere. The consequence becomes the disarticulation of terms like environmental excellence, sustainable development, and minimum environmental harm. Because the oversaturation of greening efforts has elicited public distrust, stakeholders need timely and accurate information regarding environmental claims. As a major vehicle for communicating these efforts, corporate environmental reports (CERs) are laden with colorful and sublime images. This study examines the functionality of images found in CERs from 27 industry leaders, applying Sonja Foss’s tenets of visual rhetorical analysis to identify the nature and function of the images and offer an evaluation based on emergent themes. Because images are increasingly important to corporate transparency, the study concludes with several best practice recommendations to serve as ethical image design strategies and to reflect the ways companies address impactful operations.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/3489353
Recommended Citation
Brooks, Sarah E., "Image Trends in Corporate Environmental Reporting: Bolstering Reputation through Transparency or Widening the “Sustainability Gap”?." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2012.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/3489353