ABSTRACT
The occurrence of frequent mass incidents is a salient characteristic of China’s environmental problems in recent years. Environmental rumors that surround the public’s concerns about their own security and distrust of the government often contribute to such incidents. In recent years, projects to produce paraxylene (PX) have met with a series of popular protests and boycotts across China, because of the rumor that PX is highly hazardous. Through textual analysis of PX rumors from 2007 through 2012, this chapter explores the characteristics of their content and the mechanism of their production and dissemination. Due to traditional media’s simple replication of rumors, the obscurity of government information, and the process of time, some rumors have become entrenched during their evolution, and are more difficult to trace back to their sources.
