Toward an Interwoven Community of Practice: How Do NGOs Work With Chinese Journalists on Reporting Climate Change?

Authors

  • Yeheng Pan Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven
  • Michaël Opgenhaffen Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven
  • Baldwin Van Gorp Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven

Keywords:

China, climate change, NGO, journalist, community of practice

Abstract

Since climate governance gained political traction in China, NGOs have emerged as an active stakeholder. Media work, one of NGOs’ main activities with significant implications for Chinese climate journalism, remains underexplored. This study fills this lacuna by examining how NGOs interact with Chinese journalists and discussing how their interactions affect their mutual relations and climate reporting. A group of Chinese climate NGO professionals and journalists were followed over a period of two years (COP21–COP23) on WeChat. Drawing on the concept of community of practice, group chats are analyzed in terms of members’ expertise construction and interpersonal networking. Through online observation, supplemented by fieldwork at COP21 and COP23 and interviews of key members during COP25, this study argues that when analyzing Chinese climate NGO–journalist relations, it is necessary to take into account interpersonal ties and climate expertise, two shaping factors for a potential interwoven community among the two actors.

Author Biographies

Yeheng Pan, Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven

Yeheng Pan is a PhD researcher at the Institute for Media Studies at KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research interests include media, NGOs, and environment. She is working on her PhD project about Chinese media coverage of climate change negotiations. Phone number: +32456114145

Michaël Opgenhaffen, Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven

Michaël Opgenhaffen (PhD, KU Leuven) is Associate Professor of New Media and Journalism at the Institute for Media Studies at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses mainly on the production and consumption of journalism in the social media news ecology. Phone number: +3216320102

Baldwin Van Gorp, Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven

Baldwin Van Gorp (PhD, University of Antwerp) is a Professor of Journalism at the Institute for Media Studies at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses mainly on framing effects and the framing of societal issues, such as dementia, migration, and poverty. Phone number: +3216323179

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Published

2020-11-28

Issue

Vol. 14 (2020)

Section

Articles

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