Frame alignment and environmental advocacy: the influence of NGO strategies on policy outcomes in China

ABSTRACT

The link between environmental frames and policy outcomes in China is explored. Environmental nongovernment organizations’ (ENGOs) issue interpretation and presentation affect environmental policy changes. The notion of ‘frame alignment’ is introduced, and it is argued that it can serve to link ENGOs’ advocacy needs and frame resonance among different stakeholders, thus successfully promoting advocacy. Based on in-depth interviews and analysis of news reports over a span of 10 years, it is found that where ENGOs are able to align their issue frames with those of the central state and media, the resulting frame resonance smooths policy change. In contrast, where ENGOs adopt conflict frames critical of state authorities, the absence of alignment leads to a slim chance of policy change. The findings shed light on why some ENGOs successfully create linkage and achieve their desired outcomes while others fail to do so.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental NGO
• China
• media
• framing alignment
• framing resonance

Acknowledgments

We thank the editors and anonymous journal reviewers for their detailed editing and very helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Project of the Humanities and Social Science Research Fund of the Ministry of Education of China [‘The Function of Environmental Communication from Risk Management Perspective’, grant number 17YJA860002], Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program and the 2015 Youth Project of Asia Research Center in Tsinghua University.