An Appraisal Theory Approach to News Reports on Rhino Poaching in South Africa

Abstract South Africa is home to the world’s largest population of rhinoceroses. Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the number of rhinos poached for their horns. These horns are smuggled out of South Africa and sold on the black markets of Southeast Asia, either as a party drug or as traditional medicine. The aim of this article is to analyse news reports on rhino poaching by using appraisal theory in order to establish whether emotive language is present in reporting on rhino poaching. Two corpus management tools, Sketch Engine and NewsBank, were used to select news reports on rhino poaching for analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that emotive language is present in the news reports. The article speculates that emotive language is used to influence the way in which readers perceive rhino poaching, in order to change their behaviour and involve them in the conservation effort.