Shaping sustainable perceptions: The role of metaphors in Olympic news discourse.

The dissemination of sustainable development concepts in large international events like the Olympics has garnered great attention. As a major international sports event, the Beijing Winter Olympics served as an important platform for showcasing China's sustainable development philosophy throug...

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Main Author: Wei Peng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317380
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author Wei Peng
author_facet Wei Peng
author_sort Wei Peng
collection DOAJ
description The dissemination of sustainable development concepts in large international events like the Olympics has garnered great attention. As a major international sports event, the Beijing Winter Olympics served as an important platform for showcasing China's sustainable development philosophy through its official news coverage. In this context, metaphor, as a powerful cognitive tool, plays a crucial role in shaping public perception and facilitating the dissemination of values by mapping concrete source domains onto abstract target domains. This paper constructs a critical metaphor analysis framework for sustainable development, analyzing the mechanisms by which metaphors map the concepts of social, economic, and ecological sustainability, and their multifaceted roles in conveying policy proposals, ideologies, cultural values, and social group behaviors. The findings indicate that metaphors effectively facilitate public understanding of sustainability by concretizing abstract concepts. In the social dimension, metaphors emphasize fairness, cultural diversity, and social solidarity; in the economic dimension, they highlight resource recycling, technological innovation, and industrial upgrading; while in the ecological dimension, the focus is on environmental protection and the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature. Metaphors play a crucial role in shaping public perceptions of policy, reflecting specific values and socio-cultural contexts, facilitating cultural communication and understanding, and enhancing public responsibility and participation awareness.
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spelling doaj-art-dbb2d6373d6a414fa48d273191e9b9712025-08-20T03:10:47ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01201e031738010.1371/journal.pone.0317380Shaping sustainable perceptions: The role of metaphors in Olympic news discourse.Wei PengThe dissemination of sustainable development concepts in large international events like the Olympics has garnered great attention. As a major international sports event, the Beijing Winter Olympics served as an important platform for showcasing China's sustainable development philosophy through its official news coverage. In this context, metaphor, as a powerful cognitive tool, plays a crucial role in shaping public perception and facilitating the dissemination of values by mapping concrete source domains onto abstract target domains. This paper constructs a critical metaphor analysis framework for sustainable development, analyzing the mechanisms by which metaphors map the concepts of social, economic, and ecological sustainability, and their multifaceted roles in conveying policy proposals, ideologies, cultural values, and social group behaviors. The findings indicate that metaphors effectively facilitate public understanding of sustainability by concretizing abstract concepts. In the social dimension, metaphors emphasize fairness, cultural diversity, and social solidarity; in the economic dimension, they highlight resource recycling, technological innovation, and industrial upgrading; while in the ecological dimension, the focus is on environmental protection and the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature. Metaphors play a crucial role in shaping public perceptions of policy, reflecting specific values and socio-cultural contexts, facilitating cultural communication and understanding, and enhancing public responsibility and participation awareness.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317380
spellingShingle Wei Peng
Shaping sustainable perceptions: The role of metaphors in Olympic news discourse.
PLoS ONE
title Shaping sustainable perceptions: The role of metaphors in Olympic news discourse.
title_full Shaping sustainable perceptions: The role of metaphors in Olympic news discourse.
title_fullStr Shaping sustainable perceptions: The role of metaphors in Olympic news discourse.
title_full_unstemmed Shaping sustainable perceptions: The role of metaphors in Olympic news discourse.
title_short Shaping sustainable perceptions: The role of metaphors in Olympic news discourse.
title_sort shaping sustainable perceptions the role of metaphors in olympic news discourse
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317380
work_keys_str_mv AT weipeng shapingsustainableperceptionstheroleofmetaphorsinolympicnewsdiscourse