Offline Investigative Journalism and Online Environmental Crusades

Abstract

The current century is a time of online environmental crusades. China’s online public space is filled with citizen-initiated environmental discussions and groups, as facilitated by the wide spread and application of the Internet, its associated Web 2.0 tools and other ICT devices. In particular, visual images and texts that can evoke strong emotions among Internet users, such as images of polluted rivers, dead finless porpoises, dense smog, the striking appeals of residents of “cancer villages” for survival and salvation, and reflections on the construction of the Three Gorges Dam are widely circulated online. These first-hand accounts of the damage to the environment from human activity and ordinary people’s suffering are detailed, sensational, packed with personal experiences and feelings. They create a space in which the wider public can see what is happening to the environment in distant places as well as the potential risks posed to the whole nation by human activity locally and over greater geographical distances. The capacity to have the public bear witness to environmental destruction and make them aware of environmental problems and risks can resonate among the public and even trigger outrage. The emergence of online environmental crusades on the one hand forges a civil critical voice that opposes governments over the national priority for economic growth and, on the other, demonstrates that it is no longer solely down to investigative journalism to reveal environmental problems and mobilise the public. These two aspects thus pose questions for investigative journalism and its role.