Exploring the formation of the “leave-it-to-experts” storyline during the initial outbreak of the 2013 smog hazard in Beijing

Abstract

Beijing’s smog hazard is one of the most urgent issues on China’s public agenda. Drawing on the recently developed dynamic discourse coalition (DDC) approach, this article examines the ways in which the hazard’s initial outbreak in early 2013 was reported by four news sources: the Xinhua News Agency; China Daily; South China Morning Post; and the Associated Press. The findings suggest that although domestic and overseas media first provided different explanations for the hazard, these were eventually consolidated into the same problem-solving discourse of “leave-it-to-experts.” This discourse included a proposal to address the hazard under the current political economic structure of industrial capitalism. The proposal, however, was constrained by an elitist bias that downplayed China’s existing social and regional inequalities. The article argues that environmental challenges such as the smog hazard call for not only a sustainable model to direct China’s future development, but also the explicit recognition of the country’s existing environmental injustices.

Keywords:

• environmental communication
• China
• air pollution
• discursive coalition
• critical discourse analysis

Acknowledgments

This research was conducted with the support of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. I would like to thank Dr Shane Gunster and Dr Yuezhi Zhao for their constructive feedback during the conceptualization of the project. I am also grateful for the insightful comments offered by two anonymous reviewers and the help provided by the Chinese Journal of Communication’s editorial team.