Trust, norms and networks in social media environmental mobilization: a social capital analysis of Under the Dome in China

ABSTRACT

After the Spring Festival of 2015, an environmental documentary called Under the Dome in which Chai Jing acted as a narrator has caused the public opinion to boom in social media in China. Why could a documentary released by internet attract so much attention and spark such a heated discussion? What are the factors that have influence on the information dissemination of social media environmental mobilization? This paper employed case study and semi-structure interviews to reveal these questions. It turned out that individual trust, group norms and information networks of the social capital played an important role in the social media environmental mobilization. The reason why Under the Dome became a hot issue was that it made full use of the social media users’ trust on the mobilizer, aroused the mobilized’s emotions and combined the network channels of social relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Under the Dome
• social media
• social capital
• environmental mobilization

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Shuhua Zhou from University of Alabama for polishing the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Xiujun Deng is a professor of School of Journalism and Information Communication in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China.

Shuang Peng is a graduate student of School of Journalism and Information Communication in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China.

Notes

1. CCTV refers to China Central Television.

2. Insight was a column that Chai Jing hosted. This program started on December 2010 and was taken off as a result of sensitive issues on July 2013. Consisting of two parts, interviews and news documentaries, it offered insight into society and revealed human nature in a warm way.

3. Insight, written by Chai Jing, was published in 2013. Having the same name as the column she had hosted, this book told the story of Chai Jing being a host in CCTV for 10 years. It was not only an autobiographical work but also a record of 10 years of social change in China.

4. Two sessions refer to the NPC and CPPCC. The full names are the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.