New Media and China's Social Development by Yungeng Xie

Author:Yungeng Xie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

5.3 Problems in Handling Online Public Opinions

Government departments, especially local ones, are an important force of handling public opinion in China, and their crisis handling capability and effect bear directly on the trend of public opinions in China and the public’s attitude toward and trust in the government. In a sense, local government’s capability of handling public opinions and crisis has become an important aspect in China’s efforts to improve its governing capability and build a service-oriented government. However, problems exist in local government’s handling of online public opinions and more efforts and improvements are needed in that area. Considering this, SJTU Public Opinion Research Laboratory, on the basis of studying hotspot online events since 2003, has put forth the following government handling models—proactive handling, ostrich tactics, buck-passing, blocking information source, organizing online commentators, response from third parties and Internet user observer groups. Among them, proactive handling is becoming the mainstream model, but models such as ostrich tactics, buck-passing and blocking information source are also adopted sometimes and have triggered major negative public opinions (Report on Chinese Social Opinion and Crisis Management, 2013). Researchers Wang Qingchuan and Shen Hui pointed out that some local governments haven’t performed very well at times of public emergencies in recent years, and are particularly criticized for information release and disclosure. For instance, when faced with the media’s and public’s demand for information disclosure, some government officials adopted improper strategies such as the ostrich strategy, earthworm strategy, kangaroo strategy, gecko strategy, sparrow strategy and parrot strategy (Wang and Shen 2011).

In view of the strategies that governments on all levels have adopted to handle online public opinion in recent years and their actual performance at times of influential online public opinion events, the author has summarized the following problems in their handling.

First, ostrich strategy, which means that the government acts like an ostrich that hides its head in the sand at times of danger. The characteristic of this kind of government intervention is that in face of public opinion, the government drags its feet in making targeted responses to public questions. It either applies procrastination by refusing to take interviews or release information or just turns a deaf ear to public opinions. This kind of handling model usually generates many conjectures and dissatisfaction among the public, and the government’s inaction may complicate an event that is originally easy to solve and turn it into a crisis. A typical case is the pollution of Nanhu Lake in Guangxi’s Nanning. In early September 2010, Nanhu Lake Park, a “name card” of the city of Nanning, saw its Nanhu Lake get polluted by domestic sewage because a sewage pipe was broken during a tunnel construction project, and the lake was filled with dead fish. On September 11, Internet users posted this information on Nanning’s local forum hongdou.gxnews.com.cn and drew public attention. In September 12-14, Modern Life Daily, GXTV and Nan Guo Zao Bao reported on this. On September 14, Nanning municipal government organized relevant departments to form an investigating

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