Empirical Study of Communication of Audience Cognition of Environmental Awareness

Environmental protection is a vital issue nowadays. Many scholars typically focused on the social aspects of it in their research. For the practical implementation of environmental protection, raising environmental awareness is crucial. With the rapid development of digital media, animation is now used to effectively convey this issue of concern. This study employed qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the effects of viewers’ esthetic experiences and preferences for an original environmental protection-themed sand animation in order to understand cognitive differences between viewers regarding film and television. We selected critical social issues and a popular sand animation for this study. Analyzing the cognitive differences and preferences of the viewers, we identified key factors that attract viewers. The findings were as follows: (1) People gain clear cognition of the environmental protection theme from the sand animation. (2) Innovative perspectives gain recognition more easily. (3) Propagation of environmental awareness to audiences is possible through fiction. (4) Age and professional background cause differences in cognition of film by audience. (5) Different elements of film have different effects on creative intensity and cultural depth