An eco-linguistic analysis of conservation news published by mass media in Indonesia

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the eco-lexicon meanings contained in the conservation news texts published by mass media in Indonesia. The data sources are mass media found at www.unnes.ac.id, Suara Merdeka, and Kompas. The data are collected through listening, documentation, and interview techniques and analyzed using distributional and referential analysis techniques. The novelty of this study is the dimension of cultural meaning in the eco-collection of conservation news texts in the mass media in Indonesia. The findings of this study enrich the theory of Lindo and Bundsgaard in 2000 which stated that the dynamics and changes that occur at the lexicon level are influenced by three dimensions, namely ideological, sociological, and biological dimensions. Simply put, conservation news text needs to be utilized as teaching material by teachers and lecturers in language learning or other learning types in schools or universities to enrich the text genre and foster the value of love for the environment.

Keywords:

• conservation news text
• eco-lexicon meaning
• eco-linguistics
• mass media

1. Introduction

Conservation is one of the important news topics in society. In Indonesia, the conservation issue (maintenance, care, protection, preservation, and use of nature) has become a development priority. As a result, many conservation issues are reported in the mass media. Although conservation news is an important issue, conservation issues are quite sensitive for Indonesian. This is because it is commonly associated with government policies or ideologies. For this reason, the coverage of conservation-oriented universities in the mass media in this study has the potential to be an important and sensitive issue.

The strategic considerations that underlie this research are (1) the phenomenon of the meaning of the eco-lexicon of conservation news texts related to the relationship between language and ideology, and (2) the phenomenon of the meaning of the eco-lexicon of conservation news texts related to the relationship between language and the environment.

Furthermore, the underlying considerations for why conservation news texts in the mass media are (1) conservation news texts in the mass media are argumentative texts, thus examining this text means examining how to argue to support opinions (opinions) so that they are understood and accepted by the readers, (2) in its form as a conservation news text in the mass media, the news is not only a linguistic phenomenon (lingual structure), but also as a building of thought (cognition structure) and action structure (Yuniawan et al., 2019). The opinions of media institutions expressed in the news must be influenced or determined by media institutions and their social context. Thus, the study of conservation news texts is an opportunity to examine language in an interdisciplinary manner and can increase understanding that news is a complex structure of language, thoughts, actions, and results of social construction, and (3) conservation news texts in the media. Mass is a journalistic genre that has the potential to be studied by scientists and or researchers, as news is a type of writing that has the opportunity to have many readers.

As a text, conservation news is considered not only a linguistic phenomenon (linguistic structure) but also a logical thinking phenomenon (cognitive structure) and conduct formation (active structure) as the text is dynamically (Halliday & Hasan, 1992). The text is a language in certain duties in one situational context (Halliday & Hasan, 1992). Text represents what is actually performed, defined, and said by society for certain factual situations. Thus, text often shows some reflections of certain means that have the potentials to carry hidden power as a reflection of the author and/or its affiliation (Fauzan, 2018).

Text is a language that performs a specified task in situational contexts. The lexicon of these texts are created by the mass media, which also forms environmental linguistic expressions (Fill & Mühlhäusler, 2001). Within the scope of eco-linguistics, the relationship between language and the environment at the lexicon level is influenced by three dimensions (Lindø & Bundsgaard, 2000): (a) an ideological dimension, that is, people’s ideology (e.g., capitalism is supported by the market ideology that various activities should be made in dealing with the environmental resources, such as the presence of terms and exploitation discourses, as well as the economic growth and benefits); (b) a sociological dimension, characterized by the presence of discourse, dialog, and social discourse activities to actualize the ideology—in this dimension, language is a meaningful, practical social form; and (c) a biological dimension, related to the diversity of living organisms within an ecosystem. In any language where the entities are signified and comprehended, the biological dimension is verbally documented in the lexicon within the word vocabularies that correlated to environment.

In addition, three strategic considerations underlie the eco-lexicon research of the conservation news texts published by mass media: (1) lingual phenomena which are relatively new, since many have never been studied from the eco-linguistic perspective; (2) the eco-lexicon phenomena contained in the conservation news texts that engage in the relationship between language and ideology; and (3) the eco-lexicon phenomena contained in the conservation news texts which deal with the relationship between language and environment. Thus, the purpose of this research is to analyze the eco-lexicon meanings contained in the conservation news texts published in mass media in Indonesia.

Stubss (1983) asserts that the functions of language provide meanings to the environment. Furthermore, Halliday (1975) suggests seven functions of language: (1) instrumental function; (2) regulative function; (3) interactional function; (4) personal function; (5) heuristic function; (6) imaginative function; and (7) informational or representational function. These seven functions of language support and complete each other. Therefore, eco-linguistics can critically questions text functions related to the environment. These texts were created by the mass media so as to create a reality that constructs society about the environment. The mass media influences the cognition of readers or the public to participate in preserving the environment.

This research focuses on the eco-lexicon meanings contained in the conservation news texts published by mass media. Thus, the research questions are formulated as follows:

1) How is the ideological meaning representation in the conservation news texts published by mass media in Indonesia?

2) How is the sociological meaning representation in the conservation news texts published by mass media in Indonesia?

3) How is the biological meaning representation in the conservation news texts published by mass media in Indonesia?

4) How is the cultural meaning representation in the conservation news texts published by mass media in Indonesia?

The results of this study are expected to contribute theoretically and practically to the fields of linguistics, language learning, journalism, and public policy.

2. Literature review

Salim (2007) states that human’s social, ideological, and organizational relationship with nature needs to be noted and developed in arranging a natural resources management strategy. This perception is the factor that influences individuals and social groups. Therefore, multidisciplinary studies are needed, such as sociology, anthropology, and natural science. In this link, eco-linguistics tries to participate in reviewing the environment from a linguistic perspective. Eco-linguistics, first introduced by Haugen in his article entitled Ecology of Language in 1972, discusses the lexicons contained in environmental discourse texts. According to Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001), eco-linguistics is a form of interdisciplinary applied linguistics. Furthermore, Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001) explain that eco-linguistic is a broader study of its scope in studying syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, hence the need for some new innovative theory to investigate these ideas empirically. According to Crystal (2008), eco-linguistic is a study that reflects the nature of ecology in biological studies, in which the interaction between language and cultural environment is seen as the core: it is also called the language ecology, linguistic ecology, and sometimes green linguistics. Alexander and Stibbe (2011) define eco-linguistics as a study of language use impacts on life sustainability, bridging the relationship between humans, other organisms, and the physical environment normatively oriented on the sustainable preservation of relationships and life. Eco-linguistics is the study of language according to the environment it is used in. The term emerged in the 1990s as a new paradigm of language study that speculates not only the intra-relations, the inter-relations, and the extra-relations of language and environment but also the combinations of these relations. This new trend in the conceptualization of human language eventually leads to linguistic criteria to overlap with many other aspects that correlate with linguistic behavior (Derni, 2008).

From an eco-linguistic perspective, the environmental language is considered metaphorical expressions which explain the correlation between linguistics and environmental sciences (ecology; Mbete, 2013). Moreover, eco-linguistics develops as a result of the development of human ecology which is related to various systems (economic, social, religious, cultural, linguistic and ecosystem systems) that are interdependent and related to one another (Stibbe, 2010). It implies that the eco-linguistic perspective can rescue, protect, empower, and preserve the vernacular. Nevertheless, the empowerment, protection, and preservation of the Indonesian language as the national and state language should be highly prioritized as well.

A body of research on eco-linguistics already exists. An article by Keulartz (2007) entitled “Using metaphors in restoring nature” states a recent increasing metaphorical role related to the environment and nature conservation. Metaphor is not only organized based on how someone feels and thinks but also how someone acts. This article explores four types of metaphors commonly used to form ecological restoration: metaphor in the field of machinery and cybernetics, art and aesthetics, drugs and health nursery, and geography. This metaphor utilization aims at giving respect and certain contexts. The research conducted by Keulartz (2007) is similar, as it analyzes a linguistic issue in conservation news. The difference lies in the research focus.

Research discussing how media uses ideology to convey their message already exists and conducted by Fauzan (2018), entitled “Ideology and Rhetoric: Framing Metro TV News in The Lapindo Mudflow Tragedy”. This research uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to show how Metro TV inserted ideology and rhetoric to develop news that talks about Lumpur Lapindo. The CDA focus started from two different points. Fauzan (2018), firstly, argued that every news always conveys the message that reflects dominance or power, and to reach that, he used Fairclaugh’s CDA framework to decrypt the ideology behind the news. Secondly, he argued about the importance of scrutinizing news structure as written and oral text as its intentions are immensely distinct from academic intentions by finding the rhetorical pattern to dig the underlying ideology. Fauzan (2018) felt the necessity to analyze the ideology behind any news from media outlet as ideologies is being used to represent unequal relations in society; it usually involves power relation that is intended to be legitimized, meaning, the news might have the potentials of carrying an implicit connotation and a hidden power.

The research conducted by Fauzan (2018) is similar, as it analyzes the ideology meaning in a mass media publication, and the differences lie in the research scope and medium.

Fauzan (2018) research scope focuses on Metro TV’s publication about Lumpur Lapindo, whilst this research focuses on conservation news published by www.unnes.ac.id, Suara Merdeka, and Kompas. Fauzan’s (2018) research also shows distinctions about the research goal. His goal is to find ideological meaning (that imposes power and hegemony) using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and scrutinizing the text by finding the rhetorical pattern. On the other hand, this research shows different goals by providing four different meanings in scrutinizing mass media publications. This research focuses on four aspects of meaning; ideological, sociological, biological, and cultural, by analyzing the publications using an eco-linguistic approach.

Similar articles about the implication of linguistic in decoding its socio-cultural perspective from mass media publication have also been done by Omar et al. (2018). The study focused on the issue of linguistic politeness and media education in its socio-cultural perspective by adopting the lingua pragmatic approach of the Egyptian media, specifically on recognized educative platforms in pragmatics, talk show. Omar et al. (2018) finding in their study reveals the extent to which socio-cultural and political events influenced the use of lingua-pragmatic terms like forms of address and the level of politeness embedded in them. His finding is done to reveal how social and environmental factors are able to shape people’s mindset and their use of language. Omar et al. (2018) believed that there existed a close relationship between linguistic politeness and pragmatics that made media a means of social education and revealed in its distinct lexical classes such as titles, personal names, nicknames, and pronominal systems.

There are some resemblances between this research and Omar et al. (2018) research. The similarity lies beneath the medium of the research and the research attempt of using linguistic aspects to decode its socio-cultural perspective as a way to raise awareness and its distinction lies behind the theoretical framework, research scope, and its medium.

On the other hand, Omar et al. (2018) focused their study using linguistic politeness to analyze the text and framed it using the study of lingua-pragmatic. This research focused its study by using eco-linguistic at the level of the lexicon. The distinction between the branches of the theory and the medium reached for the goal are vastly different. Neverthless, Omar et al. (2018) conducted the study mainly in Egypt; he used Egyptian media talk shows as a medium to decode linguistic politeness and media education, and this research focused on news that contains environmental issues published by www.unnes.ac.id, Suara Merdeka, and Kompas from March 2010 until March 2017.

Omar et al. (2018) study and this research also have differences within its scope; while his study focuses its scope on socio-cultural perspective, this research focuses on four different aspects: ideological, sociological, biological, and cultural. Though with differences of the theoretical framework, research scope, and medium differences, both of the goal of the research remains similar as it is a study of media that have intention spread awareness of specific perspective lies within the media, which is socio-cultural perspective.

Research conducted by Mbete (2012) highlights the verbal meanings and vocabularies in the forms of lexical units in Waijewa and Kodi languages that related to the natural environment. These languages are rich in meaning and function, including sociological, biological, and ideological functions that are well associated in both linguistic speeches. However, this research focuses its analysis in the written data from conservation news published by mass media.

Theoretically, the similarity lies in theory used: eco-linguistics. The research conducted by Mbete (2012) adopts Haugen (1972), Sapir (1912) points of view as well as three-dimensional points of view proposed by Bang and Døør (1996). The research conducted by Mbete uses the texts taken from both Waijewa and Kodi languages associated with the natural environment, while this research collects the data from the conservation news text fragments published in mass media. The research conducted by Mbete (2012) has contributed to this research by looking at the diversity of verbs, functions, and the meaning of lexicons in ideological, sociological, and biological dimensions.

Furthermore, still related to a study on environmental topics, Garrard (2012), in his eco-criticism study, explains that environmental problems require cultural analysis, as arising problems result from the interaction between ecological knowledge and cultural inflection. Garrard (2012) also asserts that ecological knowledge focuses more on the ground shift than the basic eco-criticism analysis and particularly emphasizes integrity, harmony, and stability challenges resulting from postmodernism ecology, disputes, and changes. Garrard (2012) also posits that eco-criticism explains the theories of literature and culture, philosophy, psychology, and environmental history. Garrard (2012) focuses himself on North American and British eco-critical developments, yet his rhetorical and tropo-logical approach is clearly relevant to eco-criticism, which is defined as the ability to criticize the existing discourses, cultural artifacts, forms, styles, and others.

Steffensen and Fill (2014) conducted a study entitled “Eco-linguistics: The state of the art and future horizons” in which they trace the presence and development of ecological linguistics or eco-linguistics, starting from the early 1970s.

This research views four particular ways in which the ecological language has been conceptualized as a) ecological symbols (investigating the existence of language and symbolic system within a certain area); b) natural ecology (investigating how language is connected to the surrounding biology and ecosystem); c) sociocultural ecology (investigating how language is connected to social and culture); and d) cognitive ecology (investigating how language appears as the result of its dynamic relationship between biological organisms and their environment, with a focus on the cognitive capacity which improves the organism’s flexibility and adaptive behaviors).

Sedlaczek (2016), in his research entitled “Representation of climate change in documentary television: Integrating an eco-linguistic and eco-semiotic perspective into a multimodal critical discourse,” discussed problems in investigating media related to the climate changes in the context of documentary shows on television. His research uses both eco-linguistic and eco-semiotic theory.

These previous studies assert that language may be utilized as a means to inform on environmental issues through mass media. In addition, they have some similarities with this understudy research on topics explored and the use of eco-linguistic theory, as well as some differences in terms of the undertaken research data sources and focuses.

Yuniawan et al. 2019) study show that the level of necessity for conservation text for elementary school students’ literacy enrichment leads to the following aspects: content, legibility, presentation and graphics, and motivation. This conservation text refers to three pillars of conservation, namely: value and character pillar, art and culture pillar and natural resource and environment pillar. Conservation text does not only serve as a lingual structure, but also as a cognitive structure and action structure. Environmental literacy may serve as an indicator of students’ ecological awareness in protecting and preserving the earth since they were childhood (Yuniawan et al., 2022).

Based on the data analysis of Yuniawan et al. (2019) study on “The Function of Eco-Lexicons Contained in Conservation News Texts Published in Mass Media”, the function of eco-lexicons contained in the conservation news texts published in mass media is as follows: (1) instrumental function, such as stating a dynamic movement; (2) representation function, consisting of: (a) giving names, (b) describing characters, (c) describing activities (d) referring to a place, (e) stating art diversity, (f) describing situations, and (g) expressing types. The function of eco-lexicons contained in the conservation news texts is to provide the society a better understanding and knowledge of environmental literacy. Thus, the function of eco-lexicons is to provide meanings to an environment.

3. Materials and methods

3.1. Research design

Philosophically, this research is based on phenomenological perspective. Phenomenology is a philosophical basis of which application is through various critical and scientific thinking phases starting from inductive thinking, in which researcher catches a number of social phenomena in the field, analyzes such phenomena, and then tries to theorize based on the observed phenomena (Bungin, 2008). Therefore, the verbal research data were the form of conservation eco-literacy. It also was in numeric symbol in the form of percentage that were taken using qualitative and quantitative descriptive approach. In this approach, the authors analyze the words and describe the data from respondent’s perspective, and studies the situation experienced (Creswell, 1998).

The qualitative technique application is based on the phenomenological epistemological conception presented by Husserl (1970), confirming that human awareness actively contains experience objects (Holstein & Gubrium as cited in Denzin & Lincoln, 2009).

This research uses an eco-linguistic design. There are three research considerations in utilizing the eco-linguistic design: (1) the demands required by the research object; (2) the relationship of research dimension within eco-linguistics; and (3) the novelty of the specified approach which is required to obtain eco-linguistic analysis.

3.2 Data and source of data

The research data are the segmented conservation news texts published in Indonesian mass media. The research data sources are the conservation news texts retrieved from www.unnes.ac.id, Suara Merdeka, and Kompas published from 12 March 2010, until 12 March 2017. Some criteria were applied during selecting the data, including (1) the selected texts are assumed to contain conservation eco-lexicons; (2) the related mass media have a vast reporting area; and (3) the related mass media reach many readers.

3.3. Data collection technique

The data were collected through listening, documentation, and interview techniques (Kesuma, 2007; Mahsun, 2005; Mbete, 2013). The listening technique was supported by the writing technique. When the writing technique was implemented, the researchers wrote down important details related to the data obtained from the mass media’s news text fragments in data cards. Data cards that are being used to analyze texts from conservation news in mass media are as follow:

The documentation technique was used to collect the conservation-based policy regulations, academic documents, and news in mass media. This technique was intended to strengthen the research data’s empirical facts. Furthermore, the validity of the data in this study is pursued through the following steps: (1) discussions, (2) re-checking, and (3) consultations with conservationists or peers associated with the field of eco-linguistics (Mbete, 2013; Miles & Huberman, 1992; Sudaryanto, 2015). The peers were comprised the co-authors 2 and 3 in this study.

Furthermore, the data were then analyzed using distributional and referential techniques (Sudaryanto, 2015). The referential-distributional technique is a data analysis based on references contained in linguistic utterances. This technique divides the eco-lexicon’s lingual units into several types, for example, the referent difference or the referred figures shown by the eco-lexicon (Sudaryanto, 2015). Furthermore, the referential-distributional technique in the data analysis of this research is shown with the existence of lexicons with meaning (Sudaryanto, 2015).

3.4. Data analysis technique

Data analysis in this research was done using two procedures, namely, (1) analysis during data collection process and (2) post-data collection analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1992).

The first procedure was performed using the following steps: (1) data reduction, i.e., identification. In this phase, the authors identify which news that contain conservation eco-lexicons and it should be reported by mass media that has vast reporting area and has many readers; in this case three mass media have been chosen, namely www.unnes.ac.id, Suara Merdeka, and Kompas. (2) Data presentation. During this stage, the data were categorized based using Table 1. (3) Conclusion. The authors deduced a conclusion based on the explanation in the data presentation.

Table 1. Example of corpus research data

Data Number:
News Headline:
Date:
Source:
News Citation:
Eco-Lexicon:
Analysis:

The second procedure was carried out using the following steps: (1) transcription of the recording data, (2) grouping data derived from recording and field notes, in which divided into three categories, namely ideological, sociological, and biological dimensions. (3) in the interpretation, the authors interpret the meaning based on the theory used and (4) inferencing or plotting on the basis of evidence and reasoning:. Data analysis is done using distributional and referential technique. Distributional technique is used to analyze the eco-lexicon within conservation news in mass media and referential technique is used to gather the distinction of the referent within the appointed eco-lexicon.

4. Finding and discussion

This analysis of the meaning of conservation news texts in the mass media in Indonesia does not only find a lexicon in a linguistic system. This analysis also discusses the problem of the dimensions of the meaning of the eco-lexicon used for campaigns or socialization of environmental conservation, as well as criticism of the elements that play a role in environmental damage. This implies that this research examines biological language, how humans interpret the biological language or natural language, and the role of language in an environment or social ecology.

There is a novelty in the results of this study, namely the existence of dimensions of cultural meaning in the text of conservation news in the mass media in Indonesia. This study’s findings enrich Lindø and Bundsgaard (2000) theory, which states that the dynamics and changes that occur at the lexicon level are influenced by three dimensions, namely the ideological, sociological, and biological dimensions of Sapir (in Fill & Mühlhäusler, 2001).

4.1. Ideological meaning representation

Based on data analysis, the eco-lexicons found in conservation news texts are categorized into the ideological meaning, such as (a) arum luhuring pawiyatan ing astha nira; (b) berwawasan koservasi (having a conservation insight); (c) kampus berbudaya luhur (highly civilized campus); (d) kampus berperadaban akademik unggul (academically civilized superior campus); (e) kampus hijau (green campus); (f) kampus konservasi (conservation campus); (g) konsep hijau (green concept); (h) konservasi bahasa (linguistic conservation); (i) konservasi budaya (cultural conservation); (j) konservasi seni (art conservation); (k) konservasi h-bat (green, clean, and healthy [H-bat] conservation); (l) kurikulum konservasi (curriculum conservation); (m) memayu hayuning bumi; (n) pilar konservasi (pillar conservation); (o) pilar budaya (cultural pillar); (p) prinsip konservasi (conservation principle); and (q) rumah ilmu (science house).

Lindø and Bundsgaard (2000) explain that ideological functions and meanings are related to the individual cognitive, ideological, and psychological systems. From the results of the data analysis, it was found that the eco-lexicons have meanings which are closely related to the Universitas Negeri Semarang’s ideology as a conservation-based university. The quoted data representing the ideological meanings are as follows:

1. Beliau terkesan pada Universitas Negeri Semarang sebagai kampus konservasi dan menyatakan ingin sekali Kabupaten Ende bisa bekerja sama dengan Universitas Negeri Semarang [He is greatly impressed by the Universitas Negeri Semarang as a conservation-based university and states that he really wants Ende Regency to cooperate with the Universitas Negeri Semarang] (28/WB/2 July 2011).

2. Pembagian bibit tanaman kepada mahasiswa baru selaras dengan komitmen UNNES sebagai universitas berwawasan konservasi [The distribution of plant seeds to the new students is in line with the Universitas Negeri Semarang’ commitment as a conservation-based university]. (121/WB/ Augusts 17, 2016).

3. Spirit konservasi dilaksanakan dengan asas saling menghormati, kebersamaan, guyub, dan tidak menjadikan kita terkotak-kotak [Conservation spirit is achieved based on mutual respect, togetherness in harmony, and without fragmentation] (83/WB/30 August 2013).

In line with the data excerpts taken from the conservation texts, the ideological meanings are based on the Universitas Negeri Semarang’s style guide or special ideological meaning as a conservation-based university. According to the research data, the ideological meanings of kampus konservasi (conservation campus) and universitas berwawasan konservasi (conservation-based university) refer to the meaning contained in Universitas Negeri Semarang’s Rector Regulation Number 22 of 2009 as a “conservation-based university”. This regulation states that a conservation-based university implements tri dharma perguruan tinggi (three principles of higher education) and refers to the conservation principles or insights: protection, preservation, sustainable utilization, natural resources, and arts and cultural conservation. It implies that the implementation of tri dharma at Universitas Negeri Semarang always prioritizes conservation principles or insights.

The meaning of the ideological dimension “kampus berwawasan konservasi” (conservation-based campus) implies that the implementation of three basic principles (tri dharma) at the Universitas Negeri Semarang always prioritizes the conservation principles or insights. Thus, the Universitas Negeri Semarang has the vision to become a conservation-based university with an international reputation (Regulation of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia No. 49 Year 2016 on UNNES Statute).

In addition, the data contains the spirit konservasi (conservation spirit) eco-lexicon. Conservation spirit means that the science house develops the superior civilizations. The conservation spirit eco-lexicon meaning is represented in Universitas Negeri Semarang Rector Regulation Number 6 of 2017 on Universitas Negeri Semarang Conservation Spirit. According to the regulation, Universitas Negeri Semarang conservation spirit is arum luhuring pawiyatan ing astanira, or “the reputation and nobility of this territory lie on our hands.” This eco-lexicon means that the university is expected to uphold its reputation and the values of Universitas Negeri Semarang alma mater dignity.

Ideological representation is developed by a group or institution to reproduce and legitimize its dominance with its main strategy to raise people’s awareness that domination is accepted the way it is (taken for granted). Accordingly, ideology has several essential implications. First, ideology is inherently considered social and not personal. Ideology requires sharing among the group or organization members to form solidarity and integrated steps to act and behave. Second, although considered social, ideology is internally used among group or community members. It is considered as general and abstract, and its value is shared among group members to provide a basis on which to identify problems. Thus, discourse is not understood as neutral and natural, yet it contains the ideology to dominate and influence others. Trampe (as cited in Fill & Mühlhäusler, 2001) mentions that environmental texts in mass media contain the following aspects: (1) reification, treating living beings as objects with the economic values related to technology and ideology, and (2) euphemisms.

4.2. Sociological meaning representation

Based on data analysis, the following are eco-lexicons contained in the conservation news texts classified into the sociological meaning category: (a) duta konservasi (conservation ambassadors); (b) etika lingkungan (environmental ethics); (c) gazebo (gazebo); (d) gerakan menanam (planting activity movements); (e) humanis (humanist); (f) inovatif (innovative); (g) inspiratif (inspiring); (h) kader konservasi (conservation cadres); (i) karakter konservasi (conservation characters); (j) keadilan (fairness); (k) kejujuran (honesty); (l) konservasi (conservation); (m) konservasi etika (ethical conservation); (n) konservasi moral (moral conservation); (o) konservasi nilai (value conservation); (p) kurikulum konservasi (conservation curriculum); (q) menanam harapan (planting hopes); (r) nilai konservasi (conservation value); (s) peduli (caring); (t) pendidikan konservasi (conservation education); (u) pendidikan lingkungan hidup (environmental education); (v) pengembang konservasi (conservation developers); (w) pengerak konservasi (conservationists); (x) ramah lingkungan (environmentally friendly); and (y) sportif (sportsmanship).

Sociological relationships refer to how humans organize their relationship with others. Similarly, Salim (2007) states that human relationships with nature both socially, ideologically, and organizationally need to get be developed in developing natural resource management strategies. Thus, sociological meaning representation also refers to how eco-lexicons may be used as a means of interaction and mobilizing others or a particular group. Based on an analysis of the conservation news texts, the quoted eco-lexicon data representing the sociological meanings are as follows.

• (4)“Keberadaan dosen muda sebagai pioneer dan penggerak konservasi sangat penting karena merekalah calon pemimpin universitas di masa mendatang,” kata rektor UNNES Prof Sudijono Sastroatmodjo M.Si. [The existence of young lecturers as pioneers and conservation driving forces is greatly essential, since they are the university prospective leaders in the future,” said Universitas Negeri Semarang Rector, Prof. Sudijono Sastroatmodjo M.Si] (67/WB/8 December 2012).

• (5)Setiap tanaman yang dibagikan secara simbolis dalam upacara tersebut mewakili delapan nilai konservasi yaitu: inspiratif, humanis, peduli, inovatif, kreatif, sportif, kejujuran, dan keadilan [Each plant given symbolically during the ceremony represents 8 conservation values: inspiration, humanity, care, innovation, creativity, sportiveness, honesty, and justice] (121/WB/17 August 2016).

• (6)Universitas Negeri Semarang (Unnes) bertekad mewujudkan kampus yang humanis [The Universitas Negeri Semarang is greatly determined to realize a humanist campus] (69/WB/6 January 2013).

The sociological meaning is based on the notion that each cultural fact is born and developed under certain socio-historical conditions. Ideological meaning represents interactions or relationships between individuals or groups of people in a society. The sociological meaning in the conservation eco-lexicons focuses on how an eco-lexicon may represent attitudes which reflect conservation, either value and character pillar conservation, art and cultural conservation, or natural and environmental resource conservation.

The higher education’s main goal is actually as the science house. Thus, all campus residents’ thoughts, attitudes, spirits, and movements should be based on science. In addition, the spirit konservasi (conservation spirit) is represented by the conservation logo located at the top of Universitas Negeri Semarang’s conservation monument. Spirit konservasi (conservation spirit) is also described in 8 values: inspiratif (inspiration), humanis (humanity), peduli (caring), inovatif (innovation), kreatif (creativity), sportif (sportiveness), kejujuran (honesty), and keadilan (fairness). These 8 conservation spirit values are represented in conservation-based news texts, which rely on the fact that social interactions are always based on the conservation principles. Spirit konservasi (conservation spirit) should absolutely exist within a duta konservasi (conservation ambassador), or someone who serves as a penggerak konservasi (conservation driving force). Duta konservasi (conservation ambassador) is someone educated as the successor of natural resource conservation efforts, who is equipped with awareness and knowledge about natural resource conservation and is willing and able to convey conservation messages to the communities.

The eco-lexicon’s sociological dimension for the conservation driving force refers to educated students or a group of educated students taking on the role as the next generation, continuously striving for conservation, and conveying the conservation values to wider society. The conservation driving force encourages all academicians at Universitas Negeri Semarang to sustainably implant the conservation values in the form of socialization, training, education, and implementation activities for all members belonging to Universitas Negeri Semarang to strengthen their understanding, comprehension, and actions toward conservation.

4.3. Biological meaning representation

Based on data analysis, the eco-lexicons contained in the conservation news texts are included in the biological meaning category, such as (a) bangunan hijau (green building); (b) bangunan ramah lingkungan (environmentally friendly building); (c) bank sampah (garbage bank); (d) bebas asap (smoke-free); (e) biodiversitas (biodiversity); (f) biopori (biopore); (g) daerah hijau (green area); (h) ekologis (ecology); (i) fauna (fauna); (j) flora (flora); (k) hutan pendidikan (educational forest); (l) kebun biologi (biological garden); (m) keanekaragaman hayati (biodiversity); (n) kompos (compost); (o) konservasi air (water conservation); (p) limbah (waste); (q) nir kertas (paperless); (r) pemanasan global (global warming); (s) ruang terbuka hijau (green open space); (t) sabuk hijau (green belt); (u) sampah anorganik (inorganic waste); (v) sampah organik (organic waste); (w) sumur resapan (absorption well); (x) taman herbal (herb gardens); and (y)) transportasi hijau (green transportation).

The biological meaning of representation manages the relationship between humans and other species that exist in their environment. The harmonization between humans and other species is the adaptation evidence in one environment. Harmonization may be well maintained if the connectors between humans and environments (language and culture) continuously adapt, interact, and interrelate and are even interdependent. The quoted conservation-based news text data representing the biological meanings are as follows:

• (7)Kegiatan tersebut merupakan salah satu wujud kongkrit dari konservasi sabuk hijau tepian Waduk Jatibarang [The activity is one concrete manifestation of the green belt conservation of Jatibarang Reservoir edges] (103/WB/22 April 2013).

• (8)Mahapala Unnes juga mensosialisasikan cinta lingkungan sekolah dasar se-Kacamatan Gunungpati dalam bentuk pemberian penyuluhan dan pelatihan mengenai pola hidup konservatif, praktek pengelolaan sampah organic dan anorganik kepada siswa [Mahapala, a green peace Association at Unnes, also socializes basic environmental awareness to the elementary school students in Gunungpati District in the form of counseling and training related to conservation life patterns and organic waste management practices] (75/WB/22 April 2013).

• (9)Selain itu universitas konservasi ini juga telah membuat kebun wisata pendidikan, pengelolaan keanekaragaman hayati, pembuatan biopori di Hutan Rakyat Banyuwindu [Besides, this conservation-based university has already made educational tourism garden, biological diversity management, biopori making in Banyuwindu community forest]. (37/WB/1 March 2012).

Biological dimension relates to humans living together with other species (animals, plants, lands, seas, and others; Lindø & Bundsgaard, 2000). The above data excerpts show some eco-lexicons with biological meanings because their relationship with humans’ biological side is adjacent to other species within an ecosystem. The eco-lexicon of sabuk hijau (green belt) is classified into the biological meaning category since it is a special term related to the environment. Sabuk hijau (the green belt), in this case, is not textually defined as the binding green-colored rope or a term used in karate or taekwondo, yet it possesses the contextual meaning of the imaginary border on land management and exploitation. The biological meaning representation of the green belt (sabuk hijau) is a green, open space with the main objective of limiting the development of land or limiting conflicting activities in an area. The meaning represents efforts to maintain the balance of ecosystems.

Furthermore, sampah organic dan anorganik (organic and inorganic waste) eco-lexicons represent human efforts to sort waste based on type and utilization sustainability. Inorganic waste results from non-biological materials, either in the form of synthetic production or mining materials produced using the processing technology. Meanwhile, organic waste is derived from plants and is easily recycled.

The next eco-lexicon is keanekaragaman hayati (biodiversity). Similar to the biological meaning, keanekaragaman hayati (biodiversity) is an organism diversity showing the entire variety of genes, types, and ecosystems in one area. Meanwhile, biopori (biopore) is a deliberately created absorption hole, with a predetermined size covered with the organic wastes serving as the water absorbers in soil and to create the natural composts. Biopori (biopore) has been introduced to the Universitas Negeri Semarang campus environment. Various biological meaning representations prove that eco-lexicon has a close relationship with biological and natural environment aspects.

4.4. Cultural meaning representation

Based on data analysis, the eco-lexicons contained in the conservation news texts are included in cultural meaning category, such as (a) anugerah konservasi (conservation award); (b) batik konservasi (batik of conservation); (c) budaya bersepeda (cycling culture); (d) budaya bertutur (speech culture); (e) budaya jalan kaki (walking culture); (f) budaya pesisiran (coastal culture); (g) etika seni dan budaya (art and cultural ethics); (h) gending konservasi (gending of conservation); (i) wayang orang (Javanese human theater); (j) keroncong (Javanese genre of music) conservation; (k) kampong budaya (cultural village); (l) krempyeng (artistic market); (m) puisi konservasi (conservation poem); (n) sekardomas; (o) Each Tuesday legi (Javanese-based calendar); (p) senam konservasi (gymnastic conservation); (q) sinden idol (Javanese traditional singer); (r) puisi hijau (green poetry); (s) tari Sekaringrat (sekaringrat dance); (t) upakarti artheswara adhikarana; (u) upakarti krida adhikarana; (v) upakarti mandala bumi adisajjana; (w) upakarti reksa bhinneka adhikarana; (x) upakarti reksa manggalabudaya; and (y) upakara bagyaning sasama.

Society and culture are two inseparable aspects. Based on etymology, culture derives from the Sanskrit word buddhayah, the plural form of buddhi, which means mind (Koentjaraningrat, 2005). Culture, or cultural domain, is also represented through the use of language in society. Cultural meaning representation is also found in conservation eco-lexicons, especially those included in art and culture pillars. The following is a data excerpt taken from eco-lexicons representing cultural meaning.

• (10)Pementasan wayang dengan lakon Sang Balarama tersebut tidak hanya dihadiri segenap pimpinan di lingkungan Unnes saja, namun mahasiswa dan warga sekitar pun antusias [The puppet show with the main character of Balarama is not only enthusiastically attended by unnes leaders but also the students and the surrounding communities] (118/WB/2 April 2016).

• (11)Di Jawa kita mengenal kesenian adiuhung di antaranya tari, karawitan, dan pedalangan, yang semua itu sudah teruji oleh zaman [In the land of the Javanese, we acknowledge the great art of dance, karawitan (Javanese traditional orchestra) and pedalangan (puppeteering), which have been all tested by the times. … “said the man who has recently retired from the environment of Taman Budaya Java tengah (Central Java Cultural Park)] (48/WB/2 June 2012).

• (12)Anugerah konservasi Upakarti Krida Adhikarana diberikan Christian Hadinata, atlet senior bulutangkis Indonesia. Anugerah Konservasi Upakaratama Reh Adiwangsa diberikan kepada Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Presiden Republik Indonesia ke-6 [The Conservation Award, Upakarti Krida Adhikarana, is granted by Christian Hadinata, a senior Indonesian badminton athlete. Another Conservation Award, Upakaratama Reh Adiwangsa, is granted by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the 6th President of the Republic of Indonesia] (131/WB/30 March 2016).

Culture may influence the level of human knowledge and thought. Similarly, the cultural meaning representation in the conservation eco-lexicon is greatly influenced by or derived from the ideas of people who embrace the Javanese cultures. It is certainly influenced by the Universitas Negeri Semarang’s geographical location on Java Island. The eco-lexicon wayang (puppets) from a cultural meaning representation perspective means artificial puppets made of the carved barks and so forth which may be used to characterize the traditional drama performances. In particular, in the above data excerpts, wayang refers to Central Javanese typical wayang kulit (puppet shadow play, in which the material is from the common animal leather), which in its performances mostly uses Javanese language as the language used. The puppets played by a puppeteer are accompanied by sindens who serve to accompany or sing Javanese songs with gamelan (Javanese traditional orchestra) or karawitan (musical orchestra).

Furthermore, eco-lexicons with cultural meanings are those associated with conservation awards. One of them is Upakarti Krida Adhikarana, which means conservation awards given to the influencing figures that continuously maintain the tradition of awards in the field of sports and become role models for young generations. The Upakaratama Reh Adiwangsa eco-lexicon is a conservation award for those contributing to democratic and political values. Trampe (as cited in Fill & Mühlhäusler, 2001) mentions that environmental texts in mass media contain the following aspects: (1) expressing hatred or resistance against those parties damaging the traditional or customary lands and (2) creating slogans and elements which deliver ideas and thoughts used to make the environmental and cultural destruction processes committed by a group of people seem to be based on and in accordance with the natural laws.

5. Conclusion

The eco-lexicon meaning dimensions contained in the conservation news texts are related to eco-literacy, which is used by mass media crew to inform readers about environmental conditions. Eco-lexicon meanings contained in the conservation news texts published by mass media consist of four dimensions, including ideological, sociological, biological, and cultural. These dimensions were explored in depth in this study.

Ideological representation is developed by a group or institution to reproduce and legitimize its main strategy to raise people’s awareness that domination is accepted the way it is (taken for granted). The eco-lexicons found in conservation news texts are categorized into the ideological meaning, such as (a) kampus berbudaya luhur (highly civilized campus), (b) kampus hijau (green campus), and (c) universitas berwawasan konservasi (conservation-based university).

The sociological relationship is related to how humans organize their relationships with others. Based on data analysis, the following are eco-lexicons contained in the conservation news texts classified into the sociological meaning category: (a) duta konservasi (conservation ambassadors), (b) kader konservasi (conservation cadres), and (c) penggerak konservasi (conservationists).

Furthermore, the biological meaning representation manages the relationship between humans and other species that exist in their environment. The eco-lexicons contained in the conservation news texts that are included in the biological meaning category include (a) bangunan hijau (green building), (b) biodiversitas (biodiversity), and (c) sabuk hijau (green belt).

Meanwhile, the cultural meaning representation in conservation eco-lexicon is greatly influenced by or derived from the ideas of people who embrace Javanese cultures. It is certainly influenced by the Universitas Negeri Semarang’s geographical location on Java Island. The eco-lexicons contained in the conservation news texts that are involved in cultural meaning category include (a) gending konservasi (gending of conservation), (b) wayang orang (Javanese human theater), and (c) keroncong (Javanese genre of music) conservation.

In the future, the conservation eco-lexicon forms and meanings should be well socialized and intensively and continuously utilized by society in order to improve their conservation literacy.

The conservation eco-lexicons contained in the news texts are necessary in teaching society about conservational conditions.

The conservation news texts are also necessary for teachers or lecturers to be used as teaching materials in linguistic learning and others at both schools and higher education institutions to enrich the genre texts and for environmental awareness to grow.

Ethics statement

Ethics statement is not applicable in this research since the study tends to examine the corpus data.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express his deepest gratitude to Prof. Theo Van Leeuwen from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia; Prof. Dr. Aron Meko Mbete from Udayana University; Prof. Dr. I Dewa Putu Wijana, S.U., M.A. from Gadjah Mada University; Prof. Dr. Agus Nuryatin, M. Hum.; and Prof. Dr. Ida Zulaeha, M. Hum. from Semarang State University, who has seriously discussed ecolinguistic studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.