Adaption to authoritarianism: a longitudinal analysis of Dialogue Earth’s nonprofit environmental news in China

This article examines how a nonprofit newsroom, Dialogue Earth, reported China-related environmental news during its 16 years of operation in China. To justify its nonprofit status, Dialogue Earth is expected to practice public service journalism and push the boundaries of Chinese environmental journalism. However, the past decade has seen a deterioration in the media environment in China. It remains to be seen how the media can adapt to this change and the degree to which its public service role can be maintained. This research is based on a longitudinal analysis of Dialogue Earth’s news coverage from 2006 to 2021, as well as an interview with the organization’s CEO. It reveals that although Dialogue Earth is less capable of covering some important news with the decline in press freedom, it maintains a space for monitoring China’s environmental performance on the global stage and pushes for more responsible governance. By adapting to China’s intensifying authoritarianism, the organization has managed to become a domestic source of critical discourse, while mainstream journalism is now tamed by political power. This article contributes to the current scholarship on both nonprofit journalism and Chinese environmental journalism, by showing the potential of nonprofit journalism to adapt to China’s authoritarianism and still make a difference.