Environmental and Climate Law and Policy in Mongolian Online Media: A Content Analysis and Institutional-Centered Model

Abstract

Taivanshar Enkhtuya and D. Dagiimaa

The media sector in Mongolia has developed rapidly alongside technological advancements; however, systematic research on how environmental law and climate policy information are communicated to the public remains limited. This study examines the scope of environmental law and climate policy content in Mongolian online media. The study applies framing theory to examine issue prioritization and the relationship between the public sphere and legal awareness, and employs content analysis to analyze materials published on News.mn, Ikon.mn, Montsame.mn, Zindaa.mn, and Gogo.mn between 2008 and 2025. The findings indicate that information is presented in four main framings: legal and regulatory explanations, policy-related reporting, preventive or awareness-oriented content, and crime-related coverage. In terms of content characteristics, official sources dominate, short-form news is prevalent, and there is a recurring pattern of repetitive information dissemination. The media landscape is largely government-centered and policy-oriented, while content that supports citizen participation remains limited. The online media environment is characterized by inconsistency and a tendency toward post-event interpretation of legal information. These findings suggest that the Mongolian media sector should develop a multi-source, participatory, and behavior-oriented information strategy. This study contributes to the literature by empirically examining the relationship between media content and the dissemination of environmental legal information.

PDF