ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM IN CHINA 1 This is a preview of “Chen, S. (2018). Environmental Journalism in China: Challenges and Prospects. In B. Brevini and J. Lewis (eds.), Climate change and the media: Volume 2. New York: Peter Lang.” Full article available at https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/69819 Environmental Journalism in China: Challenges and Prospects Sibo Chen School of Communication, Simon Fraser University Abstract This chapter departs from liberal interpretations that consider the rise of environmental journalism in China as resistance against the country’s authoritative media control. The overall aim is to elucidate environmental journalism’s relationship to China’s mounting ecological pressure and media political economy. For this purpose, the chapter analyzes two Chinese media’s coverage of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21): People’s Daily, the national agenda-setting newspaper, and China Daily, the most-read English language newspaper published in China. All climate change related reports in both newspapers during a 30-day period (November 21 to December 20, 2015) were selected and analyzed. By examining the ways in which the media texts depicted Chinese government’s standpoints on climate change, the chapter explicates how Chinese media present climate change to their audience by focusing on economic and political conflicts underlying climate negotiations. Such discursive strategy further legitimizes China’s aspiration for global environmental leadership. Keywords: environmental journalism, contemporary China, political economy, media system 1. Introduction Questions concerning the past, present, and future of natural environment in China are important for us all. Domestically, the country’s rapid economic development and industrialization since the 1980s has dramatically increased its consumption of natural resources and generated horrific ecological impacts, which in turn give rise to escalating environmental crises nationwide (Shapiro, 2012). Internationally, the country has received both accolades and condemnations from other countries for its ambivalent role in international environmental politics. As the world’s second largest economy and top emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG), China has become a crucial, or even decisive, player in multilateral climate change negotiations. On the one hand, China’s firm commitment to renewable energy innovation and its executive implementation of environmental policies have impressed many Western commentators. It is the first among the major industrial countries to expressly commit to pursuing a vision of “ecological civilization” and this vision has been confirmed in the Communist Party of China’s (henceforth “the Party”) constitution since 2012 (Wang, He & Fan, 2014). On the other hand, as the world’s top GHG emitter, China is reluctant to take more responsibility in reducing its GHG emissions and this position has been strongly criticized by other industrial countries (Zhang & Barr, 2013). For instance, the previous conservative government of Canada repetitively used China as an excuse for its own inaction on climate change. The media system is a contested domain for discursive struggles over China’s ecological future. Cox (2013) argues that the production of environmental stories is inevitably influenced by media political economy, media routines, and other factors such as journalist norms and news frames. Through various media outlets, different news stories and commentaries shape and influence ordinary citizens’ perceptions of and attitudes toward the country’s enduring environmental crises. Yet, the evolving environmental journalism in China, despite its indispensable role in domestic