How does the Mass Media Represent the Concept of Electric Vehicles?

The number of electric vehicle sales has been increasing rapidly since 2015. This marketing success is inseparable from the role of the mass media in promoting and campaigning for the use of such vehicles. This study attempts to investigate how the mass media represents the concept of electric vehicles through its campaign and promotion discourses. Using a descriptive qualitative method with the interpretation technique, this study analyzed 20 texts collected from electric vehicle campaigns and promotion discourses produced by the mass media. The data was analyzed from the Critical Discourse Analysis perspective based on Hall's theory of representation and Fowler's theory of linguistic tools. This process resulted in 177 words, phrases, and clauses that represent the concept of electric vehicles. The results of this study reveal 4 (four) important representations of electric vehicles from the eye of the mass media; (1) electric vehicles are environmentally friendly, (2) electric vehicles are technologically advanced, (3) electric vehicles are economical, and (4) electric vehicles are a growing innovation. The results of this study are expected to bring both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, they add to the knowledge in the realm of Critical Discourse Analysis, especially regarding representation. Meanwhile, practically, the results of this study are beneficial for mass media practitioners to be used as a model to construct campaign and advertisement languages that are able to attract audience attention as well as influence people's ideology.


Introduction
The continuous shortage of petroleum and natural gas is forcing governments, industries, and communities to look for other solutions to replace fuels. Therefore, in recent years, governments around the world have been actively implementing policies to use electric vehicles in order to reduce this dependence on petroleum, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and improve air quality (Jin and Slowik, 2017). Since then, annual global electric vehicle sales have been increasing rapidly. When they first appeared in 2010, these vehicles only sold in the hundreds; however, according to the World Economic Forum, this number continued to increase and reached 2.3 million sales units in 2020 (Broom, 2021). The Covid-19 pandemic slightly decreased the trend of purchasing electric vehicles in China, but this actually had a positive impact on the development of this industry by producing better electric vehicles for the future (Wen et al., 2021).
The success of electric vehicle sales cannot be separated from the role of the mass media, which actively and massively promotes these vehicles to the public. Printed, electronic, and digital media contribute to each other in promoting and campaigning for electric vehicles in the midst of society. A campaign itself is interpreted as an activity or series of activities carried out by a person or group with the aim of creating a certain effect or impact. Newsom et al. (1993) defined a campaign as a series of well-coordinated efforts organized to achieve one specific goal. This specific goal is interconnected and ultimately moves a group or organization towards long-term objectives.
A campaign, including the electric vehicle campaign, certainly cannot be realized without the use of suitable language. Munandar (2012) even affirmed that language makes a very critical contribution to determining the success of a campaign. The language used in a campaign can influence a person's thoughts, both directly and indirectly, which in turn will determine the person's future actions. Apart from being used to deliver messages, language is often packaged and manipulated with the aim of reconstructing reality under the wishes of the producer Fairclough (1989). It is often used as a powerful tool to spread and contest the ideology of the producer, in this case, the mass media. The ideology is reflected in the choice of words used to construct a discourse and describe the representation of a particular concept.
This present research attempts to investigate how the mass media represents the concept of electric vehicles to the public through their campaign and promotion discourses. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to (1) determine the representation of the electric vehicle concept constructed by the mass media and (2) determine the word choices used by the mass media in presenting the representation of electric vehicles. To the best of the author's knowledge, research on the representation of electric vehicles depicted by the mass media has never been conducted, and it underlines the novelty of this research.
This study is expected to bring both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, this research adds to the knowledge in the realm of Critical Discourse Analysis, especially regarding representation. Meanwhile, practically, the results of this study can be used as a model by media actors to construct campaign and advertisement languages that are able to attract audience attention while influencing people's ideology.

Promotional Campaign Discourses
Considering its purpose, the electric vehicle campaign is categorized into the promotional campaign type, which boils down to profit earning. This type of campaign involves a series of advertisements using marketing tools that share the same message and thoughts to promote a business or event (Kissam and Intili, 2003). Newspapers, billboards, television, brochures, and social media are some examples of media commonly used to spread promotional campaign discourse.
Like other types of campaigns, promotional campaign activities also utilize language as a tool to convey their messages. Besides, language is also reconstructed in such a way as to carry and spread the ideology of the producer. This reconstructed language is realized in the form of discourse. In addition to ideology, the producer's belief affects the formation of discourse.
Studies on promotional campaign discourses have taken much attention from previous researchers. These studies take various perspectives and give various results. From a language point of view, Kissam and Intili (2003), in their study of Radio Bilingue's health promotion campaign discourse in Spain, concluded that communication style and radio language play a significant role in catalyzing listeners' discussions on health topics. Furthermore, Soames Job (2011) affirmed that health promotion campaigns are often designed to induce fear. However, this strategy does not seem to be effective in achieving the desired behavior change.
Research on crowdfunding campaign discourse by Chen et al. (2016) discovered that discourse producers tend to use emotional message frames in order to attract the attention of readers or potential donors. The researchers claimed that emotional messages are one of the effective marketing tools. In addition, Block et al. (2018), in another study related to fundraising discourse, concluded that simpler language could increase the participation of potential donors to donate in crowdfunding.
Referring to previous research, there seems to be a close association between promotional campaign discourses and language. However, studies that discuss the language used to construct the discourse of the electric vehicle campaign have never been done before. Therefore, this present research aims to investigate the language used in electric vehicle discourses composed by the mass media.

Representation and Industries
Representation can be defined as the activity of forming meaning through language (Hall, 2003). In the realm of Critical Linguistics, Eriyanto (2011) affirmed that representation refers to how a person, a group, an idea, or an opinion is presented in a discourse with the aim of building an image, favoring oneself, and at the same time, marginalizing other groups or ideas. Armed with this understanding, it can be said that the representation of the concept of "electric vehicles" aims to build an image of such vehicles by showing their advantages and benefits.
A number of studies on the representation of particular concepts have been previously carried out. In a study on UN Women's campaign discourses, Zewitra (2018) concluded that the concept of "gender equality" is represented in three forms; (1) gender equality is seen as a condition when women are placed in an equal position and given the same opportunities as men, (2) gender equality is considered to bring change for a better future, and (3) gender equality is the responsibility of all parties. Furthermore, Ivana and Suprayogi (2020), using Critical Discourse Analysis, observed the representation of Iran and America depicted in Donald Trump's speech. The study viewed that, in his speech, Trump represents Iran as a country that has a tendency towards nuclear ambitions and supports terrorists, while America is portrayed as a country that has invincible power. Eklesia and Rido (2020) conducted research on the representation of "people with HIV/AIDS" in the Jakarta Post and Jakarta Globe discourses. This research confirmed that the Jakarta Post represents people with HIV/AIDS as a discriminated and threatened group, while the Jakarta Globe sees them as a group that needs more attention.
Research on representation is not only limited to the discussion of marginal and minority groups. In fact, such research can also be associated with the industrial field, how a concept or a brand is represented to the public with the aim of influencing people's opinions and convincing them to buy the product. Viot and Passebois-Ducros (2010), for example, observed the representation of wine brands and branded wine to French wine lovers. Casadai and Lee (2020) conducted a study on the representation of the fashion industry in relation to the images of the world's fashion cities -London, New York, Milan, and Paris -using data from Twitter. This present research also attempts to examine the representation of the concept of "electric vehicles" depicted by the mass media.

Word Choice
Word choice refers to a mapping of an object, concept, process, or cultural relationship needed in communication (Fowler, 2013). The meaning is seen from the relationship between one word and another. In the context of discourse production, Fowler (2013) argued that the meaning of words has nothing to do with the physical objects referred to. Vocabulary is not only used randomly, but the choice of words is related to how producers see and interpret reality and reconstruct it into a discourse that will be conveyed to the public. This selection of words allows producers to control and organize experiences in social reality (Eriyanto, 2011).
In the process of choosing words to produce discourse, there are three values to consider (Fairclough, 1989). The first is experiential value. A word is said to have experiential value if it represents the producer's experience and perspective in seeing reality. In a study on the UN Women campaign discourses, for example, experiential value is manifested in the choice of the words same, respect, equal, equality, and justice to emphasize the producer's view of the concept of gender equality (Zewitra, 2018). The second value is expressive value. Words that have expressive value show the producer's attitude and assessment of reality. For example, the use of the words right, positive, better, happier, and others show the producer's positive assessment of the concept of gender equality (Zewitra, 2018). The last is relational value. Words that have relational value show the social relationships that occur between participants in a discourse. In the UN Women's gender equality campaign, producers use formal words such as reconciliate to emphasize their position as the party with power. However, they also use semi-formal and familiar words to remove the distance from the audience, such as the words we, we together, you guys, and others (Zewitra, 2018).
Research on word choice related to discourse production has been conducted in numerous previous studies. Jucks et al. (2008) used the term lexical entertainment to refer to word choice. Grubert (2017) discovered that within the same topic, different word choices are used in different contexts to aim at different targets. Meanwhile, Zewitra (2018), in her research on gender equality campaign discourse, found that the word choices used by producers contained three values: namely, experiential value, expressive value, and relational value. This present research intends to look at the choice of words used by producers in building the discourse of the electric vehicle campaign. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this object has never been analyzed before using critical linguistic study.

Methodology
This study employed a qualitative descriptive method and interpretation technique. Using the random sampling method, data were obtained from 20 texts collected from electric vehicle campaign discourses produced by the mass media in the form of brochures, pamphlets, advertisements, and news articles in English-language online portals. The data was then analyzed using the Critical Discourse Analysis approach based on Hall's theory of representation and Fowler's theory of linguistic tools. First, the texts were carefully and thoroughly read to understand the messages. Then, they were re-read to identify certain choices of words, phrases, and clauses that carry the content of the representation. These choices of words, phrases, and clauses were underlined and documented. This process resulted in 177 choices of words, phrases, and clauses that were then observed and interpreted to produce several representations of the concept of electric vehicles. Then, the data was grouped according to the content of the representations it carried.

Results
A total of 177 choices of words, phrases, and clauses were analyzed and interpreted to obtain certain representations of the concept of electric vehicles from the mass media's point of view. This process revealed 4 (four) important representations displayed by the mass media in describing electric vehicles: (1) electric vehicles are environmentally friendly, (2) electric vehicles are technologically advanced, (3) electric vehicles are economical, and (4) electric vehicles are a growing innovation. The four representations are described using linguistic features in the form of specific word choices, phrases, and clauses that aim to introduce and promote such vehicles to the public. The distribution of word choices for each representation is presented in Table  1. Growing innovation 20 Total number of word choices 177 Table 1 presents that of the 20 texts on electric vehicles, a total of 177 words, phrases, or clauses were found to describe the four representations of electric vehicles. The majority of them (69 cases) represent that "electric vehicles are environmentally friendly".

Discussion
This section discusses each representation of the concept of electric vehicles from the media's perspective, along with the choice of words that carry those representations. The arrangement of this part is based on the dominant representation that emerges from the analysis.

1) Electric vehicles are environmentally friendly.
In the 20 samples of electric vehicle discourses, it was discovered that the mass media dominantly displays the message that "electric vehicles are environmentally friendly". This is evidenced by the appearance of 69 choices of words, phrases, or clauses associated with the concept of environmentally friendly. Some of them are shown in Table 2.  Table 2 shows the choices of words, phrases, and clauses used by the mass media to represent the first concept of "electric vehicles are environmentally friendly". With the aim of introducing and promoting electric vehicles while spreading its ideology to the public, the mass media emphasizes the basic concept of electric vehicles itself. Electric vehicles are claimed to be more environmentally friendly than those with petroleum fuel. It is then reflected in the use of words, phrases, and clauses such as the replacement of gasoline and diesel counterparts, limiting fuel consumption, and avoiding oil consumption. The choice of the word replacement indicates that electric vehicles are proclaimed as a "replacement" solution, not just an "alternative" for petroleumfueled vehicles.
Furthermore, electric vehicles are considered environmentally friendly because, unlike petroleum vehicles, they do not produce carbon emissions that damage the environment. In its discourses, the mass media emphasizes this point of preventing environmental pollution through the choice of words, phrases, and clauses such as zero-emission, emission-free power, zeroemission vehicles, cutting carbon emissions, don't have combustion emission, avoid CO2 emission, a strategic way for lowering carbon emission, mitigate emissions, help reduce carbon intensity, reduce the emission of air pollutants, reduce air pollution, decarbonization, and others. Some choice words such as zero emissions appear repeatedly, implying that this is an important and main point of electric vehicles, and this repetition of words is used by the mass media to further influence people's opinion on electric vehicles.
In addition to reducing air pollution, electric vehicles are also described to reduce noise pollution. This is evidenced by the choice of words or phrases such as no engine noise and no air and noise pollution. These phrases are used to strengthen the media's opinion of electric vehicles as environmentally friendly vehicles.
Overall, the mass media represents electric vehicles as clean vehicles (word/phrase choices: clean vehicles, clean energy), bring changes that are better for the environment (word/phrase choice: better for the environment), and in the long run can save the world from the threat of global climate change (word/phrase choices: combating climate change, meeting global climate goals, supporting a green future, and helping decarbonize the planet). The words clean and better carry a positive meaning. Meanwhile, the use of the word combating indicates that electric vehicles are a "weapon" used to combat climate change. This word has a strong power that can influence people's opinions towards electric vehicles and ultimately encourage their intention to buy such vehicles in an effort to preserve the environment.

2) Electric vehicles are technologically advanced.
The second representation found in this study is that "electric vehicles are technologically advanced". This representation is illustrated by 46 choices of words, phrases, or clauses that correlate with the concept of "technologically advanced", as presented in Table 3.  Table 3 displays the choices of words, phrases, or clauses that carry the representation of "electric vehicles are technologically advanced". Information regarding the technology is indeed essential to attract the attention of potential investors and consumers. Electric vehicle battery, as the main energy storage, is one important aspect highlighted in electric vehicle campaign discourses. Unlike petroleum-fueled vehicles, batteries for electric vehicles play a very important role. Therefore, in its campaign discourses, the mass media describes electric vehicle batteries using a selection of positive words or phrases, such as lasting longer, high density, competitive, and high performance.
Furthermore, this battery capacity is positively correlated with the mileage of electric vehicles. The mileage gets farther when the quality of the battery is better. The information regarding mileage is conveyed through the choice of words, phrases, or clauses used by the mass media in its electric vehicle campaign discourses, such as offering longer ranges, longer driving ranges, can drive further on a single charge, almost 300 miles on a single charge, can now travel twice as far, and sufficient range. It should be remarked that in describing mileage, the mass media tends to use comparative words such as longer, further, or twice as far. These words function to compare the mileage of early-day electric vehicles and today's electric vehicles when the technology has been perfected.
Electric vehicle campaign discourses also cover other information related to technology, such as widely available maps, satellite navigation, and automatic gearboxes. Besides, the models are depicted to change over time, in which nowadays manufacturers have created more varied and attractive model electric vehicles. This is described by some words, phrases, or clauses, for instance, wider model availability, expanded models, favored models, and more attractive electric models. Overall, electric vehicle technology is portrayed as something newer, better, and more improved. This is evidenced by the choice of words, phrases, or clauses such as newer, better, improved performance, and perform pretty well. These positive word choices are certainly used by the mass media to strongly represent electric vehicles to the public, with the aim of spreading ideology as well as influencing the public to use electric vehicles.

3) Electric vehicles are economical.
The third representation depicted by the mass media is that "electric vehicles are economical". This representation is depicted in 42 choices of words, phrases, or clauses associated with "economical". Some of them are presented in Table 4.  Table 4 displays the choices of words, phrases, and clauses that carry the representation of "electric vehicles are economical". Words, phrases, and clauses associated with "economical" are certainly appealing to influence consumers to purchase electric vehicles. Therefore, the mass media makes use of these linguistic features to promote and expand the range of electric vehicle use among the public.
Electric vehicles are seen to be more economical than oil-fueled vehicles; this is represented by phrases such as lower than the price of gasoline and cheaper than the petrol and diesel alternatives. In the long run, the maintenance of electric vehicles is claimed to also be more affordable (word/phrase choices: cheaper to operate in the long run, maintenance costs are lower, the total cost of ownership is lower, and low operating and maintenance costs). Regarding these word choices, it can be seen that the mass media consistently uses lower and cheaper which emphasizes the "economical" point of electric vehicles and indirectly places petroleumfueled vehicles as "more expensive".
Although the purchase price of electric vehicles is still relatively high, the mass media claims that the use of electric vehicles, in the long run, will provide significant benefits for the public. The mass media reports that in some areas, the governments have provided cheap or even free charging facilities for electric vehicles, depicted by the use of words or phrases such as charge cheaply, convenient and affordable publicly charge, free charges, and free public charging in urban areas. The use of the word free will certainly increase people's intention to buy and use electric vehicles for their daily needs.
In general, in this third representation, the mass media highlights that electric vehicles target people with middle income (word/phrase choice: benefit middle-class consumers) as their main consumers. In order to support the improvement of a green environment-oriented economy, the mass media also affirms that the use of electric vehicles can help improve the economy in the long term (word/phrase choices: provide significant economic opportunity, support emerging economies, and help people during the cost-of-living crisis). The use of certain words such as provide, support, and help depict electric vehicles as something that brings goodness to their users. Therefore, the mass media applies these words in order to influence public opinion regarding electric vehicles.

4) Electric vehicles are a growing innovation.
The last representation found in this study is that "electric vehicles are a growing innovation". This representation is depicted in 20 choices of words, phrases, or clauses; some of which are shown in Table 5. Impressive growth 10 Technological revolution Table 5 presents the choice of words or phrases that correlate with the representation of "electric vehicles are a growing innovation". The mass media represents electric vehicles as a change or revolution in technology (word/phrase choice: technological revolution), which is based on innovative thinking in order to create vehicles that are oriented towards a better future environment (word/phrase choice: future). The establishment of electric vehicles is also seen as a movement and improvement, implying that moving from petroleum-fueled vehicles, which are not safe for the environment, to those that are safer for the environment. Furthermore, the mass media sees that the development of electric vehicles today is impressive growth and progress advanced.
This fourth representation, "electric vehicles are a growing innovation", is not the main point highlighted in the electric vehicle campaign discourses, especially in advertisements. Of the 177 choices of words, phrases, and clauses analyzed in this study, only 20 of them correlate with "growing innovation". The mass media, as the discourse producer, emphasizes the first three aspects, environmentally friendly, technologically advanced, and economical, in its discourse in order to influence readers' or the public's opinion to buy and use electric vehicles.

Conclusion
This study reveals 4 (four) important representations of electric vehicles described by the mass media in its campaign discourses: (1) electric vehicles are environmentally friendly, (2) electric vehicles are technologically advanced, (3) electric vehicles are economical, and (4) electric vehicles are a growing innovation. The mass media makes use of certain choices of words, phrases, and clauses as linguistic features to realize these four representations. The results of this study contribute to essential theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, they enrich the knowledge of Critical Discourse Analysis, especially related to representation. Meanwhile, practically, the results benefit media practitioners to be used as a model for conceptualizing campaigns and advertisement languages that are able to invite people's attention as well as spread producers' ideology.
Despite its importance, this study surely bears some limitations. First, the data were taken randomly from the mass media articles.
To gain more comprehensive results, future studies are suggested to only focus on certain media, such as news or advertisements, since the producers of both media may hold onto different ideologies to spread. In addition, future researchers are advised to investigate how mass media producers from developing countries represent electric vehicles in their discourses since these countries are still struggling with not-yet-developed infrastructure to support such vehicles.

Statements and Declarations
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Publisher's Note: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers.