The Construction of Responsibility in British and American Media Coverage of Shein’s Environmental Controversies from the Perspective of Appraisal Theory

Abstract

Against the backdrop of deepening global climate governance, the environmental controversies arising from the rapid expansion of the fast-fashion brand Shein have remained a focus of mainstream media attention in the UK and the US. Of particular interest is how the media employ evaluative language resources to present and assign environmental responsibility. Drawing on Martin and White’s Appraisal Theory, this study examines eleven news reports from mainstream British and American media and conducts a comparative analysis of the discursive construction of responsibility attribution along three dimensions: attitude, engagement and graduation. The findings show that the British media tend to rely on the upscaled force of the graduation system, combined with the heteroglossic expansion strategies of the engagement system, directing responsibility toward government regulation and policy institutions, whereas the American media make greater use of propriety judgements within the attitude system, attributing responsibility to corporate business practices and the structure of consumer culture. These differences reflect distinct orientations of responsibility attribution in the two countries’ environmental coverage: the British media favor institutional attribution, while the American media favor corporate and market-based attribution. The analysis offers theoretical and practical implications for understanding how media discourse shapes public perception of environmental issues.