Multimodal Environmental Disclosure in Malaysian CSR Reports

Abstract

Malaysian corporations have to disclose corporate social responsibility (CSR), and a major register for disclosure is CSR reports. These reports contain numerous sections but Environment Sections display an endeavor to preserve the environment through a corporation's environmental CSR. The disclosure in these sections is multimodal, and various semiotic resources are employed but language and image are the principal resources. The chapter utilizes Systemic Functional-Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) and analyzes how Participants, Processes and Circumstances in language and image represent corporate involvement bringing environmental improvement. The analysis involved 27 Environment Sections in Malaysian CSR reports from 10 corporations. For language, figures of doing and being construe most of the experiences. These figures articulate the actions and descriptions of corporations performing environmental activities. For image, conceptual works construe most of the experiences. This work often articulates the state after environmental activities. The disclosure in Environment Sections conveys a positive corporation-environment relationship. It endows corporations as agents of positive social change because their CSR is presumed to generate tangible (material) or intangible (immaterial) benefits. However, environmental CSR should be seen as part of a market-driven economy, where corporations may perform CSR in terms of enlightened self-interest.