Abstract: With the advent of “user-operated media” era, how governments deal with the social crisis is a serious challenge. Environmental pollution group event is a prominent type of social crisis, generally known as “Not-In-My-Back-Yard”. As the information dominant party, the government fully understands the possible impact of the project on the local residents, but maybe block the key information for the implementation, which can lead to serious information asymmetry. Once the information is leaked, the environmental group events will break out likely. With the rapid development of information technology, especially the rise of user-operated-media communication, information channels become increasingly diversified. Facing the information asymmetry, the local residents can be easy to search, browse and acquire relevant knowledge. The search results will have an important impact on the occurrence and development of environmental group events.

Key words: environmental pollution; group events; decision-making model; information search