Marine Ecological Governance Under New Media Environment: Tripartite Evolutionary Game and Simulation Analysis

Abstract

Based on the general reality that new media with massive information and strong interactivity play an increasingly prominent role in marine ecological governance, this study introduces the coastal public participation mechanism under the new media environment. Furthermore, based on the assumption of limited rationality, an evolutionary game model among local governments, marine enterprises, and the coastal public is constructed to explore the changes in game strategies among the three participating subjects over time. Then, we used MATLAB to simulate and analyze the evolutionary stabilization strategies under different parameters by combining our research data on governments at all levels, marine enterprises, and the coastal public in 14 cities in coastal areas of China. The study shows that: 1) an objective and a fair new media environment exert a positive guiding effect on marine ecological governance, whereas a false and distorted one will lead to chaos in marine ecological governance. 2) Considering the high accuracy of new media reports, the higher the sensitivity of the local governments and marine enterprises to media reports, the more inclined they are toward strong regulation and active governance. 3) The local governments can effectively restrain the marine hazard behavior of the marine enterprises by increasing penalties and environmental protection taxes, and it is equally important to guide marine enterprises to fully utilize high and new technology in the marine industry for improving economic benefits and reducing governance costs. 4) Coastal public participation can effectively compensate for the local governments’ regulatory loopholes and can reduce the cost of government regulation. Therefore, for ensuring objective reports of new media by establishing reward and punishment mechanisms and regularly selecting excellent new media, using new media to enhance the level of marine publicity and education to encourage the coastal public to widely and fully participate in marine ecological governance is an effective means.

Entry barriers and tripartite evolutionary game analysis of seawater desalination under the government regulation in China

“…The probability of tap water's selection of l 1 is y, and the probability of the selection of l 2 is 1 − y. The strategies of government in water market is not simply divided into supervision and non-supervision (Eghbali et al, 2022), but more subtly categorized as "strict supervision" and "weak supervision" (Chen et al, 2021;Gao et al, 2022aGao et al, , 2022b, therefore can be expressed as: s = (s 1 , s 2 ) = (Strict supervision, Loose supervision). The probability of the government's choice of s 1 is z, and the probability of the choice of s 2 is 1 − z.…”

“…Additionally, the study demonstrated that stricter government regulations serve to curb opportunistic behavior by enterprises and ensure fair transactions. In their study, Gao et al (2022b) examined the tripartite game mechanism involving the government, marine enterprises, and the public within the framework of new media. The findings of their research indicated that the establishment of a just new media environment can provide favorable outcomes for marine ecological governance.…”

An evolutionary game study of environmental regulation strategies for marine ecological governance in China

“…They found that complementarity in the resources and capabilities of multiple actors is a crucial factor in forming collaborative innovation alliances and an essential source of additional benefits for innovation actors. Gao et al (2022b) analyzed the tripartite game mechanism comprising government, marine enterprises, and the public under a new media background. The results showed that a fair new media environment would positively affect marine ecological governance.…”

“…In the protection and governance of marine ecology, public participation can compensate for the lack of government supervision, which is an essential factor influencing ecological governance and the efficiency of pollution control (Gao et al, 2022b). Many countries have adopted public participation to complement their environmental governance.…”

“…The information disclosed in the 2018 and 2019 China Marine Ecological Environment Status Bulletins indicates that China's marine ecological quality is generally stable. However, some areas still have problems, such as increased marine ecological pollution (Gao et al, 2022b), reduced biodiversity (Xu et al, 2012), declining fishery resources (Yuan et al, 2022), and frequent natural disasters and emergencies (Chen et al, 2017). Ecological fragility and high resource loads have become the norm.…”