Normalization of ecological civilization in Chinese news media

Abstract The concept of ecological civilization (EC) has been proposed by China as a paradigm to reconcile economic growth with environmental protection. The paper investigates the discursive shifts of EC in Chinese news media from October 2007 to September 2024 through dynamic topic modeling (DTM) and corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis. Quantitative analysis identifies 16 themes undergoing recontextualization over time, manifested as transformations in the form of addition, deletion, splitting, merging, and continuation. Different concepts and discursive strategies are employed to normalize EC. This paper further elucidates the contextual and ideological dynamics underpinning the shifts. The normalization of EC is driven by China’s development models and international pressure regarding environmental pollution, and reinforced through discursive construction of the antagonism between industrial civilization and EC, as well as sociotechnical imaginaries fostering collective identification. This paper contributes to the literature by showcasing the utility of DTM in tracing discursive shifts of a new idea.