Climate Change in Chinese Newspapers 2000–2020: Discursive Strategies of Consolidating Hegemony
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51480/1899-5101.15.1(30).2Keywords:
mediating, climate change, communication, newspaper, ChinaAbstract
Since China’s environmental policy is defined as top-down “authoritarian environmentalism”, political propaganda and media censorship heavily affect the communication of climate change. Hence, conducting an investigation of climate change communication in the context of China is a valuable exercise. This article uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to investigate how the Chinese Press reported on, and discursively constructed climate change through the employment of a series of discursive strategies, over a 20-year period, 2000-2020. The findings indicate that news reporting on climate change was in consistent alignment with the ruling Communist Party’s environmental policies during these two decades, facilitating the consolidation of the government’s hegemony.
References
Ajakaiye, O. (2006). China and Africa: Opportunities and challenges. AERC Scoping Studies on China-Africa Economic Relations, African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). Retrieved April 11, 2022 from http://hdl.handle.net/10419/93163
Bates, T. R. (1975). Gramsci and the theory of hegemony. Journal of the History of Ideas, 36(2), 351–366.
Bolsen, T., & Shapiro, M. A. (2017). Strategic framing and persuasive messaging to influence climate change perceptions and decisions. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.385
Boykoff, M. T., & Boykoff, J. M. (2007). Climate change and journalistic norms: A case-study of US mass-media coverage. Geoforum, 38(6), 1190–1204.
Carpentier, N., & De Cleen, B. (2007). Bringing discourse theory into media studies: The applicability of discourse theoretical analysis (DTA) for the study of media practises and discourses. Journal of Language and Politics, 6(2), 265–293.
Carvalho, A. (2008). Media(ted) discourse and society. Journalism Studies, 9(2), 161-177.
Chadwick, A. (2017). Climate change communication. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.22
Chan, A. (2007). Guiding public opinion through social agenda-setting: China’s media policy since the 1990s. Journal of Contemporary China, 16(53), 547-559.
Communist Party Member website (2017). Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party. Retrieved January 7, 2022 from www.12371.cn/special/zggcdzc/zggcdzcqw/
Doudaki, V., & Boubouba, A. (2020). Discourses of legitimation in the news. The case of the economic crisis in Greece. London: Routledge.
Doudaki, V. (2018). Discourses of legitimation in the news: The case of the Cypriot bailout. In V. Doudaki & N. Carpentier (eds.), Cyprus and its conflicts. Representations, materialities and cultures (pp. 142-162). New York: Berghahn Books.
Dow, B. J. (1990). Hegemony, feminist criticism and the Mary Tyler Moore show. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 7(3), 261–274.
Dryzek, J. S., Norgaard, R. B., & Schlosberg, D. (2011). The Oxford handbook of climate change and society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London and New York: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Geall, S. (2018). Climate-change journalism and “Edgeball” politics in contemporary China. Society and Natural Resources, 31(5), 541–555.
Gilley, B. (2012). Authoritarian environmentalism and China’s response to climate change. Environmental Politics, 21(2), 287–307.
Gov.cn (2016). Guo wu yuan guan yu yin fa “shi san wu” kong zhi wen shi qi ti pai fang gong zuo fang an de tong zhi – Zheng fu xin xi gong kai zhuan lan [Notice of the State Council on issuing the work plan for controlling greenhouse gas emissions during the 13th five-year plan_Government information disclosure column]. Retrieved April 11, 2022 from http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2016-11/04/content_5128619.htm
Han, J, Sun, S., & Lu, Y. (2017). Framing climate change: A content analysis of Chinese mainstream newspapers from 2005 to 2015. International Journal of Communication, 11, 2889–2911.
Ieţcu, I. (2006). Argumentation, dialogue and conflicting moral economies in post-1989 Romania: An argument against the trade union movement. Discourse & Society, 17(5), 627–650.
IPCC (2021). Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying. United Nations. https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/
Ji, L., & Dan, L. (2017). Climate change communication in China. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.467
Kwon, K., & Hanlon, R. (2015). A comparative review for understanding elite interest and climate change policy in China. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 18(4), 1177–1193.
Lester, L., & Cottle, S. (2009). Visualizing climate change: Television news and ecological citizenship. International Journal of Communication, 3, 920–936.
Li, J., & Wang, X. (2012). Energy and climate policy in China’s twelfth five-year plan: A paradigm shift. Energy Policy, 41, 519–528.
Luther, C., & Zhou, X. (2005). Within the boundaries of politics: News framing of SARS in China and the United States. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 82(4), 857–872.
Lynch, D. C. (1999). After the propaganda state: Media, politics, and ‘Thought Work’ in reformed China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Moser, S. (2010). Communicating climate change: History, challenges, process and future directions. WIREs Climate Change, 1(1), 31–53.
O’Neill, S. (2020). More than meets the eye: A longitudinal analysis of climate change imagery in the print media. Climatic Change, 163, 9–26.
Painter, J. (2013). Climate change in the media: Reporting risk and uncertainty. London: I.B. Tauris.
Rauchfleisch, A., & Schäfer, M. S. (2018). Climate change politics and the role of china: A window of opportunity to gain soft power? International Communication of Chinese Culture, 5(1–2): 39–59.
Reese, S. D. (1990). The news paradigm and the ideology of objectivity: A socialist at the Wall Street journal. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 7(4), 390–409.
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse-historical approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 87–121). London: Sage.
Schäfer, M. S., & Painter, J. (2021). Climate journalism in a changing media ecosystem: Assessing the production of climate change‐related news around the world. WIREs Climate Change, 12(1). doi:10.1002/wcc.675
Schäfer, M. S., & O’Neill. S. (2017). Frame analysis in climate change communication. Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication. doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.487
Scott, J. (2001). Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Spence, A., & Pidgeon, N. F. (2010). Framing and communicating climate change: The effects of distance and outcome frame manipulations. Global Environmental Change, 20, 656–667.
Stensdal, I. (2012). China’s climate-change policy 1988–2011: From zero to hero? Fridtjof Nansen Institute, FNI-rapport 9/2012. www.fni.no/publications/china-s-climate-change-policy-1988-2011-from-zero-to-hero
Sukosd, M., & Wang, L. (2013). From centralization to selective diversification: A historical analysis of media structure and agency in China, 1949–2013. Journal of Media Business Studies, 10(4), 83–104.
Tang, W., & Iyengar, S. (2011). The emerging media system in China: Implications for regime change. Political Communication, 28, 263–267.
Third national assessment report on climate change editorial committee (2015). Third national assessment report on climate change. Peking: Science Press.
van Dijk, T. A. (1992). Discourse and the denial of racism. Discourse & society, 3(1), 87–118.
van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. Hamilton (eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 352–371). Massachusetts and Oxford: Blackwell.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2007). Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse & Communication, 1(1), 91–112.
Van Leeuwen, T., & Wodak. R. (1999). Legitimizing immigration control: A discourse-historical analysis. Discourse Studies, 1(1), 83–118.
Vu, H. T., Liu, Y., & Tran, D. V. (2019). Nationalizing a global phenomenon: A study of how the press in 45 countries and territories portrays climate change. Global Environmental Change, 58. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.101942
Wang, B. (2021). China’s transition on climate change communication and governance – from zero to hero. Singapore: Springer.
Wang, W. (2012). Overview of climate change policies and prospects for carbon markets in China. Les Cahiers de la Chaire Economie du Climate [The Notebooks of the Climate Economics Chair], 18. www.chaireeconomieduclimat.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/12-07-10-Cahier-ID-n18-Wang.pdf
Weiner, J. B. (2008). Climate change policy and policy change in China. UCLA Law Review, 55, 1805–1826.
Wodak, R. (2015). The politics of fear: What right-wing populist discourses mean. London: Sage.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2001). Methods of critical discourse analysis. London: Sage.
Xie, L. (2015). The story of two big chimneys: A frame analysis of climate change in US and Chinese newspapers. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 44(2), 151–177.
Yang, A. (2009, May). Chinese media in change: A comparison of Chinese media framing of the 2003 SARS crisis and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake [Conference presentation]. Annual meeting of the ICA, Chicago, IL, United States.
Yang, G., & Calhoun, C. (2007). Media, civil society, and the rise of a green public sphere in China. China Information, XXI(2), 211–236.
Zhang, H. B. (2013). China and international climate change negotiations. WeltTrends Online-Dossier. http://welttrends.de/res/uploads/Zhang_China-and-International-climate-change-negotiations.pdf
Zhao, Y. (2008). Communication in China: Political economy, power, and conflict. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Zhu, J. H. (1990). Information availability, source credibility, and audience sophistication: Factors conditioning the effects of Communist propaganda in China (Publication No. 9109722) [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Polish Communication Association
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
