Construct Green Public Opinion Space

China faces severe environmental challenges. The Chinese government has madeenvironmental protection one of its fundamental state policies and established theconcept of "scientific development" to guide economic growth and socialadvancement. In recent years, environment has been incorporated as majorconsideration into policy making and institutional reforms. The general publicincreasingly focuses their attention on environment issues and the mass media plays acritical role in educating and raising awareness. It can be argued that China'senvironment protection has developed into its current status mainly as a result ofmass media's ongoing coverage of environment issues. Mass media provide a greenforum where the government, the general public, the corporate world, environmentorganizations, advocates and other stakeholders can come together and discuss theirenvironment concerns.Against this background, this thesis examines environment protection from the massmedia perspective, proposes the concept of "environmental communication" andanalyzes its role in promoting environment protection. The author will discuss theforms, strategies and effectiveness of environmental communication and proposeways to enhance environmental communication so that it can play a larger role andmake greater contributions to China's environmental protection endeavor.This thesis first gives an overview of the importance of creating a public space forenvironment issues and the social functions of mass media, especially in environmentprotection. the second provides in-depth analysis of the history, forms and institutionsof environmental communication. outlines the challenges for environmentalcommunication and the fourth chapter discusses the factors that influence theeffectives of environmental communication and ways to enhancing its roles.This thesis is innovative in that it focuses on environmental communication, animportant but often neglected subject. For the first time in China's journalistic studies,the concept of environmental communication is put forward. Instead of talking aboutthe role of media in environment protection in isolation, this thesis places itsdiscussions in a much larger context where political, economic, social and culturalfactors are all at play. The author uses literature, historical records, interviews andonline surveys, and addresses a wide range of issues including the social functions ofmass media, development of environmental communication, its impacts andeffectiveness, current problems and future challenges. The author also makesconstructive recommendations about ways to enhance the effectiveness ofenvironmental communication.