Air pollution in China

Air pollution in China

Damien Cubizol and Sébastien Marchand are directing a study on the media coverage of air pollution in China. This project has the support of the ISite Clermont Auvergne Project and the Labex IDGM+.

The project aims to study the impact of media coverage on air quality and air pollution using the GDELT database. This database contains publications from newspapers, online media, and TV reports from all over the world.

The method: Damien Cubizol and Sébastien Marchand are analyzing the text-corpus on air pollution published on the Chinese online media and linking it with the data on the air pollution levels. They can evaluate how people are sensitive to those environmental issues and how it affects air quality.

This project has already resulted in a working paper co-written with Guo Huanxiu (Nanjing Audit University) and Elda Nasho Ah-Pine (ESC Clermont). In this study, they focus on the perception of the risk linked to air pollution based on the feelings conveyed in the media. The media started publishing more and more news on this topic after the Central government initiated a policy to reduce air pollution in 2013.However, does it positively affect air quality? Damien and Sébastien link the data on feelings and emotions from the media and the evolution of air quality to evaluate the impact of this policy. They observe the positive effects of environmental communication and also how the media influence Chinese society.

Alexis Repon, a data scientist, joined the team in early September 2021. He is working on a new algorithm to improve text analysis to better target the contents of the GDELT database. The idea here is also to take into account the media's influence on Chinese firms.