Media and Pollution in China: Mouthpiece or Watchdog?

The media plays a vital role in spreading and communicating environmental issues to the public. It is widely accepted that China has become increasingly open toward environmental news. However, the Chinese media has long been understood to be the mouthpiece of the Chinese government. Social systems...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of sustainability policy and practice 2021, Vol.17 (2), p.1-7
Main Author: Zhang, Dechun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Environmental impact
Government
Mass media effects
Media coverage
Mouthguards
News media
Pollution
Pollution control
Social systems
Sustainability
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Summary:The media plays a vital role in spreading and communicating environmental issues to the public. It is widely accepted that China has become increasingly open toward environmental news. However, the Chinese media has long been understood to be the mouthpiece of the Chinese government. Social systems have the greatest power to influence news content in the hierarchical model. Hence, this article has assessed to what extent the news content on pollution in China is produced under the influence of social systems. This study concludes that the Chinese media coverage favors topics that are positive toward China, thus using more Chinese sources that tend to put a positive spin on new content by framing pollution as a natural and global problem. However, some local and commercial Chinese media and CCTV, to some extent, do have some free space to investigate pollution news and to criticize the government so long as it is not extremely politically sensitive. This article discusses the communist ideological forces in the social systems that have a huge impact on the news content in China. Another finding is that since the opening of the market in China, some of the commercial media is somewhat influenced by a liberal ideology and thus serves as a watchdog. This does not mean that the “Chinese government’s media control is dysfunctional.
ISSN:2325-1166
2325-1182
DOI:10.18848/2325-1166/CGP/v17i02/1-7