Climate change in China: A study of news diversity in party-sponsored and market-oriented newspapers

Abstract

Chinese news publications potentially play a crucial role in mitigating global climate change. Presently, the majority of scholars treat the Chinese news media system as one single entity. We expect, however, Chinese party-sponsored and market-oriented newspapers differ in their representation of climate change. Using the conceptual framework of news diversity, we examined how Chinese journalists reported on climate change by examining their use of media frames, source types, and multiple viewpoints in news articles. The results revealed that market-oriented newspapers were indeed significantly different by including more diverse viewpoints, conflict frames, and environmental nongovernmental organizational sources, while party-sponsored newspapers employed more domestic political, science, and scientific uncertainty frames. The results suggest that researchers should be cautious about generalizing past findings to the entire Chinese media ecosystem because it is unique, diverse, and complex.