The way people and organisations describe or depict nature betrays their fundamental attitude towards nature. In this PhD thesis views of nature are seen as digestions of meaningful experiences of nature in which a religious depth can be identified. This PhD thesis contains both theoretical and empirical evidence to answer the question whether (implicit) religious elements play a role in the communication regarding nature in the Netherlands. The conclusion shows that the communication regarding nature is religionised to some extent, but there is no mentioning of a personal God or other reference to a supernatural reality.This PhD thesis also shows that the religious depth dimension does not explicitly come to the fore in what visitors are saying. The result is that this thesis, in addition to the question regarding the appropriateness of religious subtexts in the communication regarding nature, also questions whether these subtexts are convincing from the perspective of the visitors.
Based on in-depth interviews, this article presents findings of a study centred on public communication regarding Tiengemeten, a Dutch island previously occupied by farmers. An answer is sought to the question of how visitors to Tiengemeten evaluate, according to their own experiences, the discourse of people involved in Tiengemeten from a policy and communication perspective. This study showed that visitors’ experiences do not always match the emotions appealed to in public communication materials. It is also suggested that people involved from a policy and communication perspective should refrain from using ‘heavily value-laden’ phraseology. For reasons of trust, this article suggests aligning public communication with genuine experiences of visitors. This is also necessary for avoiding scepticism of visitors as policy makers and communication professionals run a risk that public communication regarding nature becomes counterproductive.
