Introduction

World Environment Day (WED) is a United Nations environmental initiative that is celebrated every year on June 5, with the participation of governments, organizations, media, and citizens to address urgent environmental issues (El-Kholy, 2012). Each year, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) proposes a global theme for WED, such as “Think. Eat. Save.” in 2013, to bring attention to global environmental issues (UNEP, 2021). WED holds enormous potential for promoting environmental awareness, reducing pollution, and advocating environmental protection. Many countries, including China, celebrate WED through various activities to underscore the significance of safeguarding and enhancing the environment (Zarrabeitia-Bilbao et al., 2022).

China has been grappling with balancing environmental conservation with economic development. Since June 5th, 1985, China has celebrated WED annually and proposed a localized theme (i.e., the Chinese theme for WED) proposed by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China (MEE). The Chinese theme for WED is more focused on China’s current environmental challenges (e.g., “Build a beautiful and clean world” in 2022) compared to the theme proposed by the UNEP (e.g., “Only One Earth” in 2022).

Facing complex and challenging environmental issues, China attaches high importance to the role of WED in propelling environmental communication and enhancing its environmental efforts. In the early days, China mainly publicized WED-related concepts through official announcements and mass media (Zhang and Skoric, 2020). The general public has few opportunities to participate in WED-related communication activities. However, in the last decade, media technology development has stimulated the environmental movement in China, expanding its reach from traditional channels such as offline events, announcements, newspapers, TV, and radio to emerging channels such as social media and websites (Cox, 2013). As a result, China’s WED-related communication activities have shown a trend of diversification of participating subjects and communication channels (Graminius and Haider, 2018).

Despite the growing complexity of China’s environmental communication landscape, a systematic and longitudinal analysis comparing the topics and strategies of key actors remains absent (Ji et al., 2018), a gap that this study aims to fill. This paper focuses on the environmental communication of multiple Chinese actors during the WED period from 2013 to 2022. It examines government announcements, media reports, and public discussions as the data sources, and two sub-studies are conducted. Study 1 investigates the content of environmental communication for different actors and how content topics change over time. Study 2 analyses the environmental communication strategies of different actors and deconstructs the strategies into differentiated frames, sentiments, and propositions. By combining the two sub-studies, this paper highlights the significance of WED for environmental campaigns and communication, encourages other countries to design communication activities based on their own environmental issues, and offers different environmental communication strategies to various countries’ actors.

Literature review

World Environment Day and environmental communication: roles and functions

WED is regarded as the preeminent environmental event of the year (UNEP, 2021), providing a global platform for environmental campaigns and inspiring positive environmental changes (Hasan and Dutta, 2019). Research on WED can be categorized into two groups. The first type of study used WED as a research context to explore case-based social issues. For instance, Gathii and Adebola (2020) examined international economics and international environmental law in the context of WED. The second type of study focused explicitly on WED and its related activities, examining their content, strategies, actors, advocacy, and feedback. These studies aimed to identify innovative strategies for developing environmental movements (Pang and Law, 2017).

With the growing awareness of climate change, natural resource depletion, and environmental damage, there have been numerous efforts to modify human behavior and promote solutions (Newman et al., 2012; Siegel, 2014). A growing body of research emphasized the importance of “environmental communication,” which encompassed various communication aspects, such as subject, platform, message, strategy, effect, and field, of promoting environmental ideas and campaigns (Hung and Bayrak, 2020; Zarrabeitia-Bilbao et al., 2022). For instance, Lyytimäki (2015) and Tong (2014) analyzed environmental reporting in newspapers to explore the link between environmental communication and risks. They all found that effective environmental communication can promote sustainability awareness while inspiring environmental initiatives and programs.

Environmental communication channels: mass media and social media

The emergence of environmental communication is closely linked to the evolution of environmental journalism and mass media (Casey, 1998). In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, American newspapers began documenting and reporting on atmospheric pollution issues (Cox, 2013). Environmental journalism developed for decades before some scholars and journalists conceptualized environmental communication from the perspective of environmental information dissemination. It was not until 1969 that Schoenfeld, in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Environmental Education, defined environmental education as a form of communication that aims to prepare citizens to understand the environment and its problems and to collaborate on solutions (Schoenfeld, 1969). This was when the concepts of environment and communication were first academically linked (Schoenfeld, 1971).

Mass media, such as newspapers, radio, television, and the internet, have long been the primary channels of environmental communication (Dunwoody and Peters, 1992). Many studies have confirmed that the environmental communication content of mass media can influence the public’s environmental perceptions (Thakadu and Tau, 2012). For example, Hespanha (2011) found that environmental news in the mass media can shape public perceptions of climate. Thus, he called for the mass media to take on the mission of climate science communication. Junsheng et al. (2019) explored the impact of climate change knowledge on the public through various mass media (newspapers, television, internet, etc.) and found that mass media can influence public awareness, attitudes, and knowledge of climate change. Dorji (2007) also demonstrated that mass media have a direct impact on the public’s environmental awareness. Hence, it is crucial to provide objective and accurate environmental news and to avoid exaggeration and misinformation in environmental communication efforts (Bell, 1994).

With the development of media technology, environmental news and knowledge are also communicated on social media platforms (Palen and Hughes, 2018). Some scholars have studied environmental communication on social media, exploring both the risks and benefits of the communication process (Liu et al., 2024), analyzing the actual function of social media in communication activities (Palen and Hughes, 2018), and researching public perceptions and attitudes toward environmental issues (Zheng et al., 2019). In these studies, it was found that social media enables the general public to debate and question the accuracy of news and knowledge, which undoubtedly increases the opportunities for public engagement in science but also poses challenges to the effectiveness of mass media environmental communication (Su et al., 2017). Hence, Hansen (2011) argued that the roles of both traditional mass media and social media in environmental communication deserve equal attention.

China’s environmental communication: actors and strategies

From the perspective of China’s environmental governance pattern, the government is an environmental policy-maker and implementer and undertakes the dissemination of the concept of ecological civilization (Guttman et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2024). In 1983, the Second National Conference on Environmental Protection declared that “environmental protection” would be a fundamental state policy of China (Wang et al., 2023). Since then, the Chinese government has frequently updated action guidelines to address climate change and environmental pollution, disseminating its environmental policies through official announcements and traditional Party newspapers (Li et al., 2023). Dai and Zeng (2021) argued that traditional Party newspapers, such as People’s Daily, are essential to China’s environmental communication, as they are critical intermediaries between the government and the public. Particularly in the past decade, with the development of media technologies, it has become more convenient for official agencies and newspapers to directly convey environmental information to the public through social media (An et al., 2024; Guo, Liu, et al., 2024). Various Chinese government agencies and traditional Party newspapers have also begun to create accounts and share environmental information on social media platforms, such as Weibo and WeChat (Guo et al., 2025; Wang et al., 2023). According to the 2024 Online Government Innovation Development Report released by Tsinghua University (2024), the total number of social media accounts created by the Chinese government had surpassed 88,000, with over 59,000 on WeChat and more than 12,000 on Weibo by October 2024.

Moreover, some studies have shown that the general public’s participation in environmental and societal issues on Weibo is also gradually increasing (Guo et al., 2021; Zhang and Skoric, 2020). Li et al. (2012) argued that public participation in environmental decision-making and discussion is a political principle and even a fact in China’s current environmental practice and communication. Ji et al. (2018) also suggested a growing interest among Chinese citizens in using social media for environmental purposes. Dai and Zeng (2021) contended that social media platforms may reflect public opinion differently from traditional news media in some environmental communication activities in China. Therefore, examining the Chinese public’s direct participation and discussion of environmental issues is also crucial to understanding the state of environmental communication activities in China (Li et al., 2012; Rauchfleisch and Schäfer, 2015).

Although the active participation of the government, media, and public in environmental communication has opened up more possibilities for the diffusion of environmental information and the discussion of environmental issues, existing research has yet to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of this open and diverse environmental communication. For instance, it remains unclear whether key environmental issues have received the proper attention and discussion from different stakeholders, and whether there are discrepancies in the focus of the government, media, and public on environmental issues (Ji et al., 2018; Liu and Goodnight, 2016). Although some studies have explored related issues, such as Tang and Tang (2016), who found that the Chinese government and official newspapers tended to convey consistent messages or take similar actions on specific environmental issues, related studies are case-specific, limiting the generalizability of their conclusions. Additionally, Western communication theory posits that framing contests involve multiple actors competing for discursive dominance through the use of divergent frames (Wozniak et al., 2016). However, the high degree of alignment between the Chinese government and media in environmental communication presents a theoretical paradox: How are communication effects shaped in the absence of framing competition? Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an overall assessment of the environmental content discussed by the government, media, and public from 2013 to 2022, to identify prominent issues or topics, as well as the consistency of discussions among different actors. Thus, we propose the first research question to assess the popular topics and thematic consistency in the statements made by the government, media, and public each year.

RQ1. What topics are different actors communicating about the environment during WED 2013–2022? How did these topics evolve over time?

In environmental communication, adopting effective communication strategies is essential for raising public awareness and motivating protective actions (Haer et al., 2016). Three core elements—sentiment, frame, and proposition—jointly shape the persuasiveness and reach of environmental messages (Haer et al., 2016; Ji et al., 2018). Prior research on Chinese environmental science communication has highlighted how strategic choices influence outcomes. For example, Liu and Zhao (2017) found that institutional actors attracted greater public attention on Weibo by tailoring their messaging strategies to suit the platform. Similarly, Zhang and Skoric (2020) reported that government-led and grassroots nongovernmental organizations differed significantly in their content focus, emotional tone, and advocacy appeals, resulting in distinct communication effects. These findings underscore the need to systematically examine how strategy selection shapes the effectiveness of environmental communication.

First, the sentiment expressed in environmental communication can reflect the attitude of different actors toward environmental issues, which can subsequently influence how audiences perceive these issues (Nelms et al., 2017). For example, Tano et al. (2022), through sentiment analysis of official press releases from governors across the 50 U.S. states during public health crises, discovered that most statements adopted a positive tone to reassure or mobilize the public. In some environmental movements, Luxon (2019) found that media outlets were less willing to adopt press releases with extreme sentiments, which could lead to adverse communication effects. Therefore, sentiment can be viewed as a key indicator for assessing the environmental communication strategies of governments, media, and the public.

Second, the frames of different posts encompass the cognitive structures and interpretations of environmental issues by different actors (Gitlin, 2003; Nisbet and Newman, 2015), reflecting the strategies employed by actors in constructing content. For example, Haer et al. (2016) compared the varying impacts of four communication frames on users’ perceptions of flooding and revealed that the narrative frame is a critical factor for effective communication. Thus, the frame of each sample denotes how different actors selectively highlight or neglect specific facts based on their positions and interests, that is, the perspective from which environmental issues are constructed (Davis, 1995).

Third, environmental communication is closely related to environmental movements, and analyzing the specific propositions within the samples also helps to provide a more detailed interpretation of the communication strategies and effects of governments, media, and the public. The proposition in environmental communication encompasses not only the recommendations of different actors for communication activities but also their environmental vision and expectations of other actors (Cox, 2013). For instance, Zhang and Skoric (2020) found that grassroots nongovernmental organizations benefited more from informational content and messages advocating environmental activism and consumerism.

The literature suggests that the adoption of different strategies in environmental communication may lead to varying effects. Therefore, it is essential to comprehensively analyze the strategies employed by different actors from three dimensions—sentiment, frame, and proposition—to identify strategies that contribute to effective environmental communication or climate action. Based on this, we propose the second research question below.

RQ 2: What strategies did different actors use for environmental communication during WED 2013–2022? How did these change over time?

It is important to emphasize that RQ 1 explores environmental communication’s content (topics) across different actors, while RQ 2 analyzes the strategies (sentiment, frame, and proposition) employed in their communication. Given the distinct focuses of these two research questions, different methods are required. Thus, we have designed two separate sub-studies to address each research question.

Study 1

Overview and design

Study 1 aims to answer RQ 1, which examines the content of environmental communication among the government, media, and individuals during WED from 2013 to 2022 and how the content has evolved over time. Social network analysis (SNA) is used to extract the topics from the three actors’ Weibo posts each year. A quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) is used to evaluate content similarity within the same year.

Based on the literature review and the authors’ observations of Weibo environmental communication, this paper identifies the actors/communicators to be examined as the government, the media, and the public (Liu and Zhao, 2017; Ji et al., 2018). In China, the credibility and communication power of various government departments and media organizations differ significantly. The MEE is an important department of the Chinese State Council responsible for ecological environmental management. The content of MEE’s announcements reflects the Chinese government’s position on environmental issues and serves as a directive for the WED campaign in the country. As one of China’s most reputable media organizations, the People’s Daily has a vast readership and a mature journalism business. Many other media outlets subscribe to and redistribute its environmental news (Guo, Wang, et al., 2024). We selected the MEE and People’s Daily as cases, given their authoritative status in China’s environmental governance and mainstream media landscape.

MEE’s announcements, People’s Daily’s news, and public discussions on Weibo (China’s largest social media) are used as sources for sample collection. To view government announcements, media reports, and public discussions on environmental issues on WED in a timely and direct manner, we set the sample collection period as June 5 (Beijing time) every year from 2013-2022.

When collecting samples, we manually located and downloaded MEE’s announcements (N = 106) and People’s Daily’s news (N = 63). Using custom Python crawlers, we collected 172,293 raw Weibo posts containing environmental discourse. To identify posts published by individual users, we implemented a three-stage filtering protocol: (1) excluding content from institutionally verified accounts (recognizable through Weibo’s official organizational certification badges, primarily granted to government agencies, media outlets, and business entities); (2) removing commercial advertisements via related keyword screening (including terms like “promotion” and “discount”); and (3) conducting manual review of posts from accounts with substantial followings (e.g., those exceeding 100,000 followers) to remove non-personalized content that may have been missed by automated detection. This yielded 145,640 personal user posts. While this approach effectively filters both verified and suspected organizational accounts, we acknowledge two limitations: some unverified institutional accounts or micro-influencers may remain in the dataset, and no specialized bot-detection measures were applied. That said, the substantial sample size of individual users, coupled with our multi-layered filtering approach, suggests that these potential contaminants fall within an acceptable margin of error for our analysis. Through a stratified sampling approach, we select 5% of the cleaned Weibo posts as the valid sample for the study (N = 7282).

Method

Study 1 conducts ‌SNA based on keyword co-occurrence. The central idea of this approach is to use keywords to summarize the sample’s topics and create a keyword co-occurrence matrix by calculating how often keywords appear together in the sample. By analyzing this matrix, SNA software (such as Ucinet or Gephi) can generate a keyword co-occurrence network (i.e., the semantic network) through cluster analysis (Drieger, 2013). We use Ucinet 6.0, a popular SNA tool with global acceptance (Johnson, 1987), which employs high-precision semantic network analysis, creates keyword matrices, and produces semantic networks for various text content forms, such as announcements, news, Weibo posts, and blog articles (Guide, 1999).

The specific operations used in Study 1 are as follows:

  1. (a)

    We use a self-written Python program to identify the keywords in each sample and count the frequency of different keywords that appeared simultaneously in the same sample. The goal is to construct a keyword co-occurrence matrix for each actor each year, generating 30 matrices for the three actors from 2013 to 2022.

  2. (b)

    To exclude the effects of significant differences in sample sizes among actors, we normalize the 30 keyword co-occurrence matrices. We select each matrix’s 30 most frequent keywords and convert them into 30 × 30 symmetric matrices.

  3. (c)

    We plot the matrices into keyword co-occurrence network graphs of the samples using Ucinet 6.0, which allows us to generate 30 network graphs for the three actors from 2013 to 2022.

  4. (d)

    We calculate the degree centrality (DC) of keywords within each network. A keyword DC measures the degree of importance of a keyword in a network by indicating how often it co-occurs with other keywords (Zhang and Luo, 2017).

  5. (e)

    We use the QAP to calculate the similarity between the network graphs of different actors in the same year. The QAP can be used to compare and calculate the overall structural correlation between two social networks, with higher values indicating greater structural similarity between the two networks (Simpson, 2001).

Results

The researchers construct a semantic network diagram of samples during WED 2013–2022 (Fig. 1) and calculate QAP correlations between different actors within the same year (Table 1).

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
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Semantic networks of samples for different actors.

Table 1 Correlation analysis (QAP) between different semantic networks.
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On WED 2013, no statistically significant correlations in content were observed among the government, media, and individuals (all QAP correlations were insignificant). The global theme for that year’s WED was “Think. Eat. Save.” The Chinese theme was “Breathing the Same Air, Fighting as One.” The content posted by the government mainly focused on air pollution in China, closely following the Chinese theme. The core keywords of the government samples were pollution (DC = 209), atmosphere (DC = 161), and governance (DC = 80). Media samples, on the other hand, primarily called for public attention to environmental pollution. The core keywords included environment (DC = 132), environmental protection (DC = 58), and pollution (DC = 42). Among individual samples, we find a more diverse range of topics. They paid attention to both the food crisis proposed by UNEP and the air pollution issue put forward by MEE. The core keywords in the individual samples included think ahead (DC = 2110), struggle (DC = 2000), and breathe (DC = 1995).

On WED 2014, we find significant correlations in the semantic networks between the government and media (QAP = 0.597, p < 0.05), government and individuals (QAP = 0.678, p < 0.05), and media and individuals (QAP = 0.610, p < 0.05). The global theme for WED 2014 was “Raise Your Voice, Not the Sea Level”, and the Chinese theme was “Declare war on pollution.” Most samples posted by the three actors focused on environmental pollution. There was a significant overlap in core keywords. For instance, the government samples used pollution (DC = 68), declare war (DC = 59), and protection (DC = 57) as their core keywords; the media samples used pollution (DC = 153), environment (DC = 150), and protection (DC = 100). Meanwhile, the individual samples utilized pollution (DC = 2223), declare war (DC = 2047), and China (DC = 1372). In the individual samples, there were lively discussions about rising sea levels, such as “Sea level is rising too fast these years. Humans need to be alert!”

On WED 2015, significant correlations were found in the semantic networks between the government and media (QAP = 0.489, p < 0.05), government and individuals (QAP = 0.792, p < 0.05), and media and individuals (QAP = 0.672, p < 0.05). WED’s global and Chinese themes were “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care” and “Practice green life. Consume with Care”. In the government samples, the core keywords were environment (DC = 269), ecology (DC = 210), and green (DC = 198). Similarly, media samples used keywords such as environment (DC = 238), green (DC = 185), and environmental protection (DC = 143). At the same time, individual samples used keywords such as WED (DC = 4264), environment (DC = 2451), and green (DC = 2151). WED 2015 marked the first “Environment Day” after implementing China’s new environmental protection law. There was a passionate and enthusiastic discussion about China’s current environmental state and protection prospects.

On WED 2016, we find significant correlations between the semantic networks of government and individuals (QAP = 0.628, p < 0.05) and media and individuals (QAP = 0.584, p < 0.05), but not between government and media. WED’s global and Chinese themes were “Zero Tolerance for the Illegal Trade in Wildlife” and “Improving Environmental Quality and Promoting Green Development.” Regarding environmental concerns, the keywords used in the government samples were environment (DC = 361), development (DC = 150), and ecology (DC = 139), emphasizing the importance of building an ecological civilization in China. The core keywords in the media samples were environment (DC = 167), environmental protection (DC = 161), and society (DC = 43), discussing environmental topics such as waste separation and air pollution. The individual samples had only a few samples discussing wildlife conservation.

On WED 2017, only the semantic network between governments and individuals (QAP = 0.767, p < 0.05) showed a significant correlation. WED’s global and Chinese themes were “Connecting People to Nature” and “Clear Waters and Green Mountains are as Good as Mountains of Gold and Silver.” China hosted a national event for WED (International Conference on New Technologies for Environmental Protection) in 2017. The government also launched a “Special Issue on Environment Day,” which detailed the environmental protection experiences in Chongqing and Fujian. The core keywords found in the government samples were environment (DC = 361), green (DC = 252), and water (DC = 175). The core keywords in the media samples were ecology (DC = 44), environment (DC = 33), and pollution (DC = 33). The core keywords in the personal samples were environment day (DC = 2076) and environment (DC = 1006), which were very similar to the content seen in the government samples.

On WED 2018, only the semantic network between media and individuals (QAP = 0.643, p < 0.05) showed a significant correlation. The global theme of WED was “Beat Plastic Pollution.” The government published 23 consecutive samples with the Chinese WED theme “Beautiful China, I Am the Actor”. The core keywords in the government samples were environmental protection (DC = 484), action (DC = 336), and ecology (DC = 310). The core keywords in the media samples were ecology (DC = 182), environment (DC = 174), and beauty (DC = 72), while the core keywords in the individual samples were WED (DC = 11037), action (DC = 5207), and beautiful (DC = 5022). Although the media and individuals also discussed environmental practices, their topics were less focused than the government. For instance, some individuals discussed waste sorting and oil pollution issues.

On WED 2019, we observe a significant correlation between the semantic networks of government and individuals (QAP = 0.424, p < 0.05) and media and individuals (QAP = 0.455, p < 0.05), but not between government and media. WED’s global and Chinese themes were “Beat Air Pollution” and “Blue Sky Defense, I Am the Actor,” both focusing on the issue of air pollution. In 2019, the government launched the first national top ten cases of public participation in environmental protection and selected the 100 most beautiful ecological protection volunteers. The core keywords in the government samples were China (DC = 93), ecology (DC = 90), and blue sky (DC = 57). The keywords in the media samples were ecology (DC = 111), garbage classification (DC = 88), and atmosphere (DC = 65). The keywords in the personal samples were WED (DC = 12159), ecology (DC = 5343), and atmosphere (DC = 3974).

On WED 2020, we observe a significant correlation only between the semantic networks of governments and individuals (QAP = 0.448, p < 0.05). WED’s global and Chinese themes were “Time for Nature” and “Beautiful China, I Am the Actor.” During the year, the Chinese government further emphasized the WED theme by releasing a theme song, logo, and mascot for WED in China. The core keywords for the government samples were ecology (DC = 597), environment (DC = 500), and China (DC = 230). The media samples had keywords such as garbage (DC = 101), waste (DC = 93), and ecology (DC = 65), reflecting a more fragmented approach to environmental issues. The keywords in the personal samples were WED (DC = 12186), nature (DC = 3319), and ecology (DC = 2830), closely aligning with the content found in the government samples.

On WED 2021, we observe significant correlations in the semantic networks between government and media (QAP = 0.572, p < 0.05), government and individuals (QAP = 0.636, p < 0.01), and media and individuals (QAP = 0.587, p < 0.05). WED’s global and Chinese themes were “Ecosystem Restoration” and “Harmonious Development between Man and Nature.” The keywords in the government samples included ecology (DC = 660), civilization (DC = 401), and construction (DC = 333). The media samples had keywords such as ecology (DC = 341), development (DC = 229), and green (DC = 173). The keywords in the personal samples were WED (DC = 13,251), conservation (DC = 4824), and ecology (DC = 3502).

On WED 2022, we observe a high correlation between the semantic networks of government and media (QAP = 0.820, p < 0.01), government and individuals (QAP = 0.736, p < 0.01), and media and individuals (QAP = 0.769, p < 0.05). WED’s global and Chinese themes were “Only One Earth” and “Work Together to Build a Clean and Beautiful World.” The core keywords in the government samples were ecology (DC = 391), beauty (DC = 262), and civilization (DC = 230). The media samples had keywords such as ecology (DC = 378), construction (DC = 247), and civilization (DC = 242). The personal samples also showed similar keywords: WED (DC = 14,908), beautiful (DC = 7048), and conservation (DC = 5655).

Overall, the consistency between the government and media agendas initially declined before subsequently rising. From 2013 to 2015, their semantic networks showed moderate correlation. Between 2016 and 2020, QAP correlations decreased with insignificant p-values, before rebounding significantly in 2021–2022. The QAP correlation coefficients for both government-individual and media-individual agenda alignments showed substantial fluctuations over time, without demonstrating any clear increasing or decreasing trends. Notably, our examination of the thematic evolution across all three sets of QAP correlations further reveals a pronounced strengthening of alignment among government agendas, mainstream media narratives, and public discourse in 2021–2022.

Study 2

Overview and design

Employing the same sample of Study 1, Study 2 aims to answer RQ 2, examining the environmental communication strategies of the government, media, and the public during WED from 2013–2022 and how they have evolved over time. This study employs content analysis to extract each sample’s frame, sentiment, and proposition.

Method

This study employs the content analysis method, which is commonly used in humanities and social sciences and has been shown to be effective in extracting sentiments, frames, and propositions from samples (Gao et al., 2022; Shi and Chen, 2014). In terms of frames, we identify four environmental communication frames in sample text, namely, the contextual frame, contrasting frame, emphatic frame, and declarative frame (Xu et al., 2023). Regarding sentiment, we focus on the inspirational words used in samples and categorize the sample sentiments into positive, neutral, and negative based on grammar and sentence meaning (Dotson et al., 2012; Gao et al., 2022). Finally, in terms of propositions, we identify and interpret the intentions of the samples’ posters, such as public participation, national legislation, science education, activity promotion, and others (Zhang and Skoric, 2020; Wang et al., 2023).

The specific operations used in Study 2 are as follows:

  1. (a)

    Researchers construct coding rules based on existing studies and sample characteristics, as shown in Table 2.

  2. (b)

    Two researchers separately classify and code the samples based on the coding table. Before jointly coding the first 20% of the samples, the two coders complete their training.

  3. (c)

    The inter-coder reliability scores are calculated using Scott’s Pi Coefficient (Scott, 1955). Scores that exceeded 0.75 demonstrate high reliability of the coding. Whenever there are disagreements, the coders discuss to determine an appropriate resolution.

  4. (d)

    The coding results are tabulated by year and actor category and then plotted as line graphs.

Table 2 The dimension and indicators of coding.
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Results

The researchers code and count the communication strategies of samples for WED 2013–2022 (Table 3). The government samples, which extensively used the contextual frame (48.11%), described the historical development and achievements of China’s environmental governance to attract public attention to environmental issues in China. Positive (97.17%) was the most popular sentiment. Public participation (65.09%) was the highest proposition, with many government samples calling for “joint action by all” to protect the environment.

Table 3 The coding results for communication strategies.
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Among the media samples, there was slight variation among the contextual frame (33.33%), declarative frame (25.40%), emphatic frame (22.22%), and contrasting frame (19.05%). The majority (93.65%) of the media samples had a positive sentiment, positively reporting on the country’s achievements in environmental governance. Compared to the government samples, the media samples mainly focused on public participation (46.03%) and science education (33.33%) as their primary propositions.

Individual samples were predominantly categorized as declarative frames (66.67%), with simple language that straightforwardly expressed their views on environmental issues. While many individual samples also had a positive sentiment (64.02%), there was a notable increase in the use of neutral (24.58%) and negative (11.40%) sentiments compared to the government and media. Some individual samples expressed dissatisfaction with the country’s environmental management, such as questioning why dust storm weather occurs frequently despite years of management. Public participation (44.51%) and science education (28.21%) were the most commonly expressed propositions in the individual samples.

Figure 2 shows how the frames of government, media, and individual samples have changed over time. In 2017 and 2018, the government published a series of “Environment Day Special Issues” that covered the results of China’s environmental governance efforts in a historical review. As a result, there was a sudden increase in the number of contextual frames in those two years. Over time, the contrasting and emphatic frames have remained relatively consistent, while the number of declarative frames has decreased. This suggests that government-issued samples increasingly utilize complex writing techniques to attract public attention to environmental issues.

Fig. 2
Fig. 2
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Samples’ frame changes over time.

Over time in media samples, there has been a slight increase in contextual frames. The number of contrasting frames has fluctuated more, with many comparing domestic and international environmental governance cases. To avoid emphasizing environmental issues that may provoke public anxiety, media samples have utilized fewer emphatic frames in recent years. Additionally, the number of declarative frames has significantly declined since 2016, with most environment-related media samples being longer and frequently using images or videos.

Since 2016, there has been an increase in the number of declarative frames used in individual samples, which has slightly stabilized from 2018 to 2022. Most individual users expressed their views on WED activities or existing environmental issues in only one or two sentences. Additionally, the number of contextual, contrasting, and emphatic frames used by individual users has slightly increased in recent years, suggesting that they are becoming more adept at expressing their views.

Figure 3 shows how the sentiments of government, media, and individual samples have changed over time. There are only a tiny number of neutral and negative samples among government and media, and the changes in the number of positive samples represent almost all of the changes in the total number of samples published by these sources. Among individual samples, the number of positive samples has significantly increased over time at a greater rate than neutral and negative samples. This trend suggests that as China’s environmental governance efforts advance, individuals become more confident in their views on environmental issues such as air and ocean pollution.

Fig. 3
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Samples’ sentiment changes over time.

Figure 4 shows how the propositions of government, media, and individual samples have changed over time. The number of government samples calling for public participation has increased, emphasizing Chinese people to “practice green living”. However, the number of government samples advocating science education has declined. Most government samples are inclined to discuss macrolevel factors and less about environmental protection in daily life. In addition, some government samples have conducted the proposition of activity promotions to publicize the environmental efforts made in different regions and the results achieved.

Fig. 4
Fig. 4
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Samples’ proposition changes over time.

The proposition of public participation is also common in media samples, with a steady number between 2 and 4 per year. While both the media and the government widely advocate public participation, the specifics are slightly different. The government samples only call for public participation in environmental protection actions. At the same time, the media samples inform the public of specific ways to participate and proper environmental behavior. Thus, the proposition of science education is also more numerous in the media samples. In addition, the media also conducts activity promotion for some meaningful WED activities.

The number of individual samples focused on initiatives for public participation and science education has significantly increased in recent years. The public has actively engaged in WED issues published by the government and the media, providing their opinions and questions. For example, one user stated, “This year’s Chinese theme for WED is Blue Sky Defense, and I’m all for it. However, air pollution in my town is worsening, and I hope authorities can intervene and investigate.” The proposition of national legislation is increasing yearly, and an increasing number of individuals hope the government can accelerate the establishment of sound environmental protection laws and crack down on enterprises and individuals who seriously pollute the environment.

Discussion

To better answer the research questions and summarize the experience of Chinese environmental communication, we need to discuss at least three more aspects.

On each year’s WED, China proposes a “Chinese Theme for WED” based on the country’s environmental situation. From 2013 to 2022, the Chinese themes for WED have focused on air quality, pollution control, forest protection, and other relevant topics, thereby highlighting the most pressing environmental issues in the country that require attention (Wang et al., 2023). This approach aligns with the country’s national conditions and is more likely to elicit public empathy. For instance, while the global theme for WED 2013 was “Think. Eat. Save,” the Chinese theme was “Breathing the same air, fighting as one.” In 2013, air pollution was adversely affecting the respiratory health of many Chinese people (Chen et al., 2013). Increased attention to air pollution in China would have benefited the country’s environmental improvement and raised public vigilance about the impact of dust storms and industrial emissions (Tilt, 2019). Moreover, in recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on “ecology” and “action,” indicating that China’s environmental protection efforts are gradually shifting from addressing specific environmental issues to focusing on the entire ecosystem (Yuan et al., 2020). The government, media, and individuals are encouraging Chinese citizens to take action to protect the Chinese ecosystem.

Both government and media environmental communication follow the “Chinese theme for WED” but differ in their emphases and perspectives (Simpson, 2001). It is evident that government samples closely followed the Chinese theme of WED and focused on some grand environmental issues (Lu et al., 2016). The government samples mainly focused on provincial- or municipal-level cases. For example, a sample report on the new situation facing environmental protection in Qinghai Province made full use of the WED platform to carry out a series of reports, press conferences, and activities such as environmental science popularization in the community. On the other hand, the media samples included interpretations of the government’s environmental protection spirit and analysis of microscopic cases (Wang and Xiao, 2020). For example, a sample recorded the news of a university academic displaying performance art on the theme of environmental protection on WED. Despite the differences in content, government and media samples were significantly correlated with individual samples, consistent with previous research showing that the information conveyed by Chinese media and the government on environmental issues is relatively consistent (Yang et al., 2020). Additionally, the media samples with interesting examples can attract and motivate the public to discuss environmental knowledge and take action on environmental issues. This finding extends theories originating from the West, such as framing and agenda-setting. In Western contexts, the media often serve as gatekeepers between the government and the public, exhibiting adversarial relationships or exercising strong information-filtering roles (Shoemaker and Vos, 2009). In contrast, our findings demonstrate that when the state leads environmental agendas, China’s mainstream media tends to adopt an “amplifier” role, promoting environmental initiatives through extensive case studies and in-depth reporting.

The sentiment of the government and the media is mostly positive, and they focus on positive publicity in environmental communication. As time passes, the government and media increasingly use the contextual frame, contrasting frame, and emphatic frame to tactfully convey to the public the idea of “all people acting together” to “build a beautiful China” (Graminius and Haider, 2018). Public participation and science education are both common in government and media propositions. On the one hand, the government and the media call the public’s attention to environmental issues, prompting the public to actively participate in environmental campaigns (Lu et al., 2016). On the other hand, the public is shown the results of the country’s efforts in managing the environment. The government and the media also educate the public on how to be environmentally friendly people in their lives. Of course, through some individual samples who hold negative sentiments, we also see room for improvement in China’s environmental communication (Tu et al., 2019). While the government and the media are making great efforts to show the effectiveness of the country’s environmental protection, some members of the public report incidents of environmental pollution in their areas that still need to be resolved (Miao et al., 2019). In addition, the public still expects more from China’s environmental protection laws, as evidenced by the yearly increase in public propositions calling for national legislation.

Conclusion

Taking the discussion of environmental issues among the Chinese government, media, and individuals in samples from WED 2013 to 2022, we use SNA to uncover the topical content discussed by different actors, conduct content analysis to dissect the strategies of environmental communication by different actors, and examine the changes in content and strategies over time. The results show that the samples published by different actors centered on discussing the “Chinese theme for WED” but with slightly different emphases. Government announcements are inclined to discuss grand environmental problems, involving the mobilization of all people for environmental protection; media samples are inclined to cover microlevel factors, containing more environmental management cases and scientific knowledge; the content of personal environmental communication is more diversified, and there are significant correlations between the content of government and media samples and individual samples. The government and the media focus on positive publicity in environmental communication. They are good at using contextual, contrasting, and emphatic frames to issue initiatives promoting public participation.

This paper explores the “what” and “how” problems of China’s communication activities for WED. We show “what” the discussions about WED are among the different actors and reveal “how” different actors have adapted diverse strategies for environmental communication over time. China’s experience has shown that environmental communication needs to focus on the country’s own prominent environmental problems and that targeted communication activities need to be carried out. The findings of this paper can encourage countries to focus on the impact of WED and inspire them to select suitable communication sentiments, frames, and propositions to implement their environmental communication initiatives. For instance, their environmental communication effect will be improved by various skillful frames (e.g., contextual, contrasting, and emphatic frames), contagious positive emotional mobilization, and propositions that promote science education and public participation.

This paper has some limitations. We only examine three actors: the government, the media, and the public. Although studies have shown that these three are the main forces of environmental communication in China, other actors (e.g., scientists, opinion leaders, environmental organizations) could be further included in future studies. In selecting our sample, we chose the MEE as the source of the government sample and People’s Daily as the source of the media sample. These are the most authoritative government units (responsible for the environment) and official newspapers in China. These samples were selected to provide a more focused discussion of the environmental communication situation of influential government and media. However, some less influential government departments and media organizations were inevitably overlooked. Finally, it should be noted that while this “harmonious” discourse—marked by high consistency between the government and the media and a positive tone—helps foster a unified public opinion environment on environmental issues and encourages public participation in environmental actions, it may also lead to insufficient in-depth public engagement based on independent thinking and critical perspectives. Therefore, in future research, we aim to explore further how to maintain policy direction and positive advocacy while stimulating more proactive and diverse public participation in environmental issues, thereby promoting the healthy development of the public sphere.