Twenty Years of Environmental Investigative Reporting: Agendas, Social Interests and Voices

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, environmental problems have developed into a major topic for investigative journalism. This development was against the backdrop of continuing economic modernisation and generally emerging environmental problems and movements. During this period, China has experienced four five-year plans (wunianjihua) 1 and three generations of leadership. Meanwhile, state capitalism has been systematically established, expanded rapidly and spread from the centre (the eastern and southern coastal cities) to the peripheries (the western, northern and middle inland areas). An inflow of global capital into China has been observed in all sorts of areas, ranging from manufacturing and agriculture to mining. As a result, Chinese society has undergone a dramatic transformation, one aspect of which is the forming of social groups that have their respective interests and distinct value systems. These value systems, diverging from the main values promoted by the Party-state, underlie increasingly active citizen participation and lobbying to change government policies and decision-making on environmental issues.