How much does the public care about conservation policy in China? Empirical Evidence from Weibo (Chinese Twitter) Microblogs

Dong, Shiyuan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/90209 Copy

Description

Title

How much does the public care about conservation policy in China? Empirical Evidence from Weibo (Chinese Twitter) Microblogs

Author(s)

Dong, Shiyuan

Contributor(s)

Miller, Daniel

Issue Date

2016

Keyword(s)

discourse, framing, China, conservation, policy

Geographic Coverage

China

Abstract

China is one of the most important countries for biodiversity conservation. However, the rapid economic growth that has made China the worlds second largest economy has brought with it severe environmental degradation. The Chinese government has responded to pressures on its ecosystems by integrating the principle of ecological civilization into its current five-year development plan (2016-2020). The success of this new conservation-friendly policy will be shaped in part by how it is received by the broader Chinese public. In this study we analyzed the content of messages sent through Weibo, a micro-blogging website akin to Twitter, to shed light on the relative importance of conservation issues in general and the ecological civilization policy in particular among Weibo users. Previous research has analyzed social media frames to reveal the relationship between public opinion and public policy, but little is known about this association between public opinion and public policy in China with respect to conservation issues. We find that the national conservation policy has largely been ignored in Weibo, but that Weibo users were more engaged with conservation and environmental issues at specific places. However, the integration of ecological civilization into Chinas current five-year development plan appears to have increased public interest in conservation.

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90209

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Copyright 2016, Dong

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