Producing green users: environmental protection practice in a platform society

ABSTRACTIn a platform society, the realization of the public value of platforms is not only affected by goals constructed based on national interest but also closely related to the rights and interests of platform users. In this context, how a platform mediates between the interests of a country, its users, and its businesses becomes a topic worthy of discussion. Through participatory observation and in-depth interviews, this study reveals that online platforms strategically transfer public values that enjoy national policy support and have a broad popular base into their ecosystems, employing techniques such as bridging different parties, gamification management, and the masking effect to produce green users. The findings reveal the unique logic of contemporary China’s platform-driven environmental protection practices and mainstream value cultivation while also highlighting the conflicts and contradictions inherent in realizing public values. This study provides a valuable perspective for understanding the Chinese platform society in terms of public value realization.KEYWORDS: Platform societyplatform governanceenvironmental protectionthe green userpublic value Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 23NJYH10).Notes on contributorsQing YanQing Yan (PhD, Sichuan University, 2013) is a professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University. His research focuses on entertainment and media culture especially in the context of new media. He is interested in examining fan cultures using the grounded theory approach and mixed methods.[yanqing2008@163.com].Hanbo HouHanbo Hou is a PhD candidate in the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University in China, and she focuses on platform economy.[hhb19480912@163.com].Meiling DuMeiling Du is a postgraduate student in the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University in China, and she focuses on media culture. [email:calledmeiling@gmail.com].Fan YangFan Yang (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is an assistant professor in the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on human and AI interactions. She is interested in examining psychological effects of new communication technologies on decision making using methods such as experiment, big-data analysis, and meta-data analysis. [yangfan6908@gmail.com]