Research On The Role Of Mass Media In The Development Of Chinese Environmental NGOs

Through examining two well-known Chinese environmental NGOs "Friends of Nature" and "Global Village", the paper tries to probe into the role of mass media in the development of Chinese environmental NGOs. At the beginning, the paper gives an introduction to the Chinese environmental NGOs and outlines the changes of the mass media since 1990s. Then the relationship between environmental NGOs and the mass media are discussed on the basis of phenomena description and case analysis. Based on the above mentioned, the paper discusses the role of the mass media from the following three angles: the inflow of the visible resources, the inflow of the invisible resources and the improvement of the external environment of environmental NGOs. Finally, the paper tries to put forward some suggestions for Chinese environmental NGOs to make use of the mass media to boost their development.The author holds the view that: On the relationship between the two, Chinese environmental NGOs rely on the mass media, whereas the market-oriented mass media need environmental NGOs. The mass media not only help environmental NGOs with the inflow of money, volunteers and experts, and also help them get good reputation, social legitimacy, political resources and so on. Moreover, the reports of the media create a more positive and active social environment for the growth of the environmental NGOs. Cooperating with the mass media is a realistic option for the environmental NGOs, which is determined by the national conditions of China. Environmental NGOs should actively cooperate with the media to make use of the positive impact brought by them. Meanwhile, they should also be prudent in coping with the media to avoid the negative effects caused by mass media's own limitations.In China, the role that mass media play in the development of NGOs has been seldom referred by the past relevant study. And the innovation of the paper is no other than focusing on the problem and discussing macroscopically.The theoretical significance of this dissertation is to widen the vision of the NGOs in China and enrich the research on the function of the mass media, while its practical significance is to provide the activities of the environmental NGOs with some references. It can also help the mass media to understand their own responsibilities more deeply and try their best to promote the development of environmental NGOs.