• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.16 no.8
• /
• pp.2571-2586
• /
• 2022

The rapid popularity of government social media has generated huge amounts of text data, and the analysis of these data has gradually become the focus of digital government research. This study uses Python language to analyze the big data of the Chinese provincial government Weibo. First, this study uses a web crawler approach to collect and statistically describe over 360,000 data from 31 provincial government microblogs in China, covering the period from January 2018 to April 2022. Second, a word separation engine is constructed and these text data are analyzed using word cloud word frequencies as well as semantic relationships. Finally, the text data were analyzed for sentiment using natural language processing methods, and the text topics were studied using LDA algorithm. The results of this study show that, first, the number and scale of posts on the Chinese government Weibo have grown rapidly. Second, government Weibo has certain social attributes, and the epidemics, people's livelihood, and services have become the focus of government Weibo. Third, the contents of government Weibo account for more than 30% of negative sentiments. The classified topics show that the epidemics and epidemic prevention and control overshadowed the other topics, which inhibits the diversification of government Weibo.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.39-58
• /
• 2023

This study examined China's public and government agenda setting in response to the Shanghai lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It employed content analysis, correlation, and Granger's causality tests to analyze 1,717 Weibo posts published by the public and the Shanghai Municipal Government from March 12 to June 1, 2022. The results showed that (1) pandemic statistics were the central attribute in the government agenda, while civil life, community management, and government and policies were the central attributes in the public agenda; (2) the government's agenda unidirectionally influenced the public agenda in terms of government policy attributes; and (3) the government and public agendas reciprocally influenced each other in terms of economic attributes. This study contributed to the existing literature by examining agenda-setting dynamics in a city closure event during the COVID-19 epidemic. It also extended existing methods by modeling implicit relationships between attributes in the public and government agendas.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
• /
• v.1 no.4
• /
• pp.249-267
• /
• 2014

Social media is being increasingly utilized in disaster relief work to identify safety issues, locate displaced-victims, and seek or provide support for those who need help. The presence of social media in disaster management has changed significantly in recent years, as it was not prevalent in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, but had become a powerful force in the 2013 Ya'an earthquake. This paper discusses the development of social media in disaster management via making a comparison between how it functioned in the two earthquakes. It examines the following aspects: who are the stakeholders that use social media in the earthquake management; how do they adopt this means in response to the earthquakes; and what are the outcomes of adopting social media with regards to public engagement and collaboration in an emergency event. As Sina Weibo acts as the equivalent of China's Twitter, the methodology relies on an analysis of posts in Weibo. The outcomes primarily show that: (1) authorities, celebrities and the public actively adopted social media for the purpose of information dissemination and resource mobilization; and (2) social media users are both content consumers and content generators in the times of earthquakes. The study concludes that social media as a backchannel communication tool is helpful for government institutions, corporations, and nonprofit organizations to build relationships with their stakeholders in the disaster management cycle. The result will interest academics and emergency management practitioners who are concerned with improving disaster communication.

• International Journal of Contents
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.10-17
• /
• 2018

China media environment has drastically changed leading to the an inevitable change of public opinion ecology. Empirical studies have focused less on public opinion guidance, which forms an important component of the government officials' media literacy. This study applied quantitative method in the investigation of media literacy in China. Ideally, media literacy is measured from media cognition, media contact, media usage under the view of public opinion guidance. The findings reveal that the existing problem on 1) incorrect media cognition and public opinion guidance; 2) insufficient contact of personal social media 3) improper tendencies in the use of media to guide the public opinion, especially, on confidential information. Consequently, in order to improve media literacy in China government officials, enhancement of their basic knowledge on news diffusion and public opinion is necessary. Secondly, to effectively deal with "agenda settings", it is important for the government to consider the provision of valuable information and platforms to effectively spread information. So they need to learn how to personally and officially use social media platforms such as Weiboa and Wechat. This ensures they have maximized their potential to acquire valuable information and spread them on valuable platforms. Thirdly, government officials should be able to analyze and understand public opinion trends for official and personal use. Finally, they should understand the development of public opinion and the how online public opinion laws are formed and the target group.