Impact of mass media on public awareness: The "Under the Dome" effect in China

This research examines the impact of mass media on citizens' awareness of environmental protection based on a natural experiment on the release of the environmental documentary titled "Under the Dome" on February 28, 2015 in China. Through a regression discontinuity design with a typical city sample, we find that the release of "Under the Dome" resulted in 2 to 3 more daily calls about air pollution concerns to the citizen hotline per county, more than twice the number of those before the shock. Considering the impact of major political events and public holidays, our results remain robust. Evidence of the "Under the Dome" effects is also found in calls about other pollution and non-pollution concerns in a longer period. We argue that the mass media generally plays a role in triggering the public awareness.