What techniques are being used?

The second key concept of the framework is that each type of media, from traditional forms like newspapers and television to emerging forms like blogs, has its own language with its own set of rules or techniques (Thoman, 2005). One of the main reasons that these techniques vary significantly is because they are culturally constructed (Kellner & Share, 2005). That is, they reflect the culture, time, and values from which they were created. This is very similar to the way in which different text types are culturally constructed and developed in order to serve different specific purposes (Campbell & Ryles, 2006, Santoro, 2004).

The Earth Hour website is designed in a way to make the reader immediately see the value and importance of the Earth itself. Its background is a simple star field with a representation of Earth as seen from space at the top. This gives the reader the feel both that the Earth is fragile and that we are alone with nowhere else to go if something were to happen to it. This technique is continued by the Earth Hour logo itself which also reinforces the fact that, as a global community, we are all affected by and responsible for the environment. This sense of global community is furthered by the 2011 official video which features uplifting music and emotive language to impassion the viewer to action. The multiculturalism of the video also reinforces the idea that the environment is not bound by national borders and cultural and ethnic differences.