<p> Over the years, growing concerns for the environment have increased discourse regarding the problems and solutions to environmental crises. Messages in popular culture have implications for public perceptions of the environment and, as a result, impact how we interact with and understand our natural surroundings. While we understand the impact of rhetorical strategies in a general sense, research is needed when exploring how speaker credibility influences environmental messages. </p><p> This thesis explores two concepts: how credibility impacts environmental messages and the concept of speaking for the environment. I explore these concepts through a media-centered rhetorical criticism of the film, <i> The Lorax</i> (2012). I analyze seven selected scenes, drawing on McCroskey&rsquo;s (1966) scale of ethos and Spangle and Knapp&rsquo;s (1996) study of tactics and appeals. The analysis reveals several tactics used by the two main characters, the Lorax and Once-ler, to establish their credibility. How the Lorax and Once-ler establish or fail to establish credibility impacts the future state of the environment. Ethos is a key communication concept in speaking for the environment, as the way we speak and represent the environment has consequences for how we interact with the natural world.</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Raimundo Alberto Mulhaisse.pdf: 5051675 bytes, checksum: 3f577849e100c304f5d27137d09cb9cf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-07-27 / The present research evaluates lhe influence that lhe enviornrnental speech syllabus exercises on environrnental speech of local communities in Dondo District, in other words, it studies lhe interference that lhe environrnental speech of local commuinities undergoes in school environrnental speech. The study starts with a theoretical revision in arder to build lhe contextual frame of environrnental education, on which it analises lhe integral fonnation of the citizen, focuses on a brief history of environrnental education and analises lhe ways of its accomplishment, institutionalisation, necessity of aquiring the knowledge and teacher trainning taking into account lhe inviornrnental education. The methodologic approach is based 00 qualitative reserch and trom this poiot a case study is developed. The selected teaching institutions for the case study were Dondo Secondary school and Mafambisse Secondary School, in Dondo District, Sofala Privince in Mozambique. These are two schools with sem i-rural caracteristics and it is only in these two schools where students attended lhe fIrst cycle, that is, trom grade 8 to grade 10 of lhe general secondary education in Dondo District, till lhe 2005 academic real. The research results show that the environrnental speech syllabus is not clearly reflected on teachers speech Dor on student's parents and this last speech reflects the way how local communities are organised and deal with nature. The students' environrnental speech reflects lhe teahers' environrnental speech. The teacher trainning with relevant knowledge on environrnental issues appears to be fundamental condition so that lhe environrnental speech syllabus can be reflected on communities' environrnental speech. The research aims to contribute on the improvement of lhe school perfonnance in lhe context of environrnental education of the local communities. A school has to be lhe responsible for lhe education of the individual and consequently of lhe society, since there is transmission of a variety of infonnation and knowledge, this generates dynamic system that covers every one / A presente pesquisa avalia a influência que o discurso ambiental curricular exerce sobre o das comunidades locais do distrito de Dondo, ou seja, estuda a interferênciaque o discurso ambientaldas comunidades locais sofre do discurso ambientalescolar. O estudo inicia com a revisão teórica para a construção do quadro contextual da Educação Ambiental no qual faz uma análise da formação integral do cidadão, apresenta um breve historial sobre a Educação Ambiental e analisa as formas da sua realização, institucionalização, necessidade de resgate dos saberes dos educandos e temlina com a abordagem da formaçãode professores na perspectiva de EducaçãoAmbientaI. O tratamento metodológica circunscreveu-se na investigação qualitativa e a partir daí desenvolveu-seum estudo de caso. Os estabelecimentosde ensino seleccionadospara o estudo de caso foram as Escolas Secundárias do Dondo e de Mafambisse, no distrito do Dondo, província de Sofala em Moçambique. Trata-se de duas escolas com características gemi-ruraise as únicas que ministram o 10ciclo do Ensino SecundárioGeral no distrito do Dondo (até ao ano 2005). Os resultados da pesquisa indicam que o discurso ambiental curricular não se rei1ecte de fonna notória no discurso dos professores e no dos pais e encarregados de educação e este último reflecte a forma como as comunidades locais se organizam e se relacionam com a Natureza. O discurso ambiental dos alunos reflecte o discurso ambiental dos professores. A fonnação de professores com elevado domínio sobre as questões ambientais afigura-se como a condição fundamental para que o discurso ambiental curricular se possa reflectir no discurso ambiental das comunidades. A investigação pretende contribuir para melhoria do desempenho da escola no contexto da Educação Ambiental das comunidades locais. A escola deve ser responsável pela educação do indivíduo e consequentemente da sociedade, uma vez que há o repasse de informações e conhecimentos e isso gera um sistema dinâmico e abrangente a todos