Donkey discourse: Corpus linguistics and charity communications for improved animal welfare

A corpus linguistic approach has been applied to examine the representation of donkeys in public discourses for an international equid welfare charity (The Donkey Sanctuary) with a view to improving the British public's understanding of the roles of donkeys, in Britain and worldwide. By increasing understanding of public perceptions, this study aims to support improvements in donkey welfare through targeted education.

The study explored patterning in public discourses about donkeys (online and print news and social media) using corpus linguistic (CL) techniques and tools, supplemented with methods from discourse analysis. The findings highlight key representations of donkeys in public and media discourses that are not present in informed discourses about the animals. In this paper, we examine the results of the corpus study from the perspective of one current aim from The Donkey Sanctuary's public engagement strategy: to promote understanding of donkeys as sentient beings with the capacity to experience a wide range of emotional responses to events or situations.

We found that donkey experience is more subtly represented in the discourses than other aspects of donkey lives, such as actions and behaviours, which have more obvious, overt representations. The results demonstrate the value of applying the CL framework for researchers and practitioners involved in textual analysis for charity communications and public awareness campaigns. We discuss the implications that our findings have for donkey welfare—and animal welfare more generally—as well as what such a methodology could offer other organisations providing public education and/or relying on philanthropic support from the public.