Environmental NGOs and Media Presence: Examining Chinese ENGOs' Social Media Use Strategies and Their Media Visibility

This study focuses on environmental non-governmental organization (ENGO)’s media visibility in China, examining how organizational characteristics, the type of environmental advocacy, and media use behaviors are related with news media attention towards an ENGO. Using data derived from a content analysis of 2158 media reports of 171 ENGOs all across China and secondary sources, the study finds that news media favor ENGOs located in eastern China, having been registered, with larger size and focusing on national environmental issues. Two types of advocacy, environmental activism and environmental consumerism, are also found positively associated with media visibility. ENGOs that have official website and use Weibo can garner more media attention. More importantly, the results reveal the effects of environmental advocacy and media use behavior depend on the type of NGOs. Compared with government-organized NGOs, grassroots NGOs will benefit more from participating in environmental consumerism activities and from Website use. The findings have important implications by stressing the role of softer forms of participation in increasing grassroots NGOs’ media visibility, and highlighting the differences of website, Weibo and WeChat use in facilitating grassroots NGOs’ environmentalism in China.