The Elephants in the Room

Abstract

While the world had its eye on the coronavirus pandemic, a herd of 15 elephants began a silent trek in China that would rapidly become a story followed by the entire world. Their journey of over 1,000 kilometres between 2020 and 2021 triggered the interest of an international audience and caused perplexity among experts. Unlike other animal migrations, this event managed to overcome triviality and reach for the headlines, with its coverage shifting from a random case of rogue animals to a human-celebrated success of multispecies coexistence. Such a two-sided portrayal has significant consequences, especially if we consider the role stories and texts play in human ecology to the extent they influence human behaviour. This paper analyses the reporting of the three Chinese media outlets CGTN, China Daily and Global Times, and adopts a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach to examine the frame these constructed around the event. As an exercise of ecolinguistics, the following dissertation aims to understand the type of story this turned into and how the discourse used can affect the ecology: what significance does it have beyond the simplicity of a migration, and what consequences does it carry on how humans interact with each other and the larger natural world. It will look into the emphasis on new forms of harmony, conservation biology challenges, and unfolding reactions to the Anthropocene. Finally, in view of the particularity of this movement, the paper turns to the field of ethology to assess this species’ behaviour and identify the lessons we can learn from it. By observing the stories written around and resulting from this journey, The Elephants in the Room presents itself as an example of environmental communication. Its goal is to highlight an event that thanks to reporting, writing, video and photography, has become a story with the potential to shape our lives, if not the lives of other-than-human animals.