Inadequate Position Construction and Timely Analysis & Judgment of Online Public Opinion: How to Conduct Public Opinion Monitoring, Judgment and Response, and What Difficulties Exist

Online public opinion judgment is susceptible to irrational influence. Online public opinion is a manifestation of irrational social psychology in ideology. In the era of self-media, the role of irrational social psychological factors in the process of public opinion communication has led to the return or even excess of audience dominance. The characteristics of social psychology—such as non-purposefulness, relative concealment, complexity, universality and collectivism—highlight the urgency and importance of establishing a guidance mechanism for online public opinion for the government.

Therefore, we should guide the public through correct public opinion orientation to encourage rational thinking and voluntary actions, and give full play to the positive side of the reactive role of social psychology. We should refer to more analyses of hot online public opinion cases (such as those from Lusi), and summarize the patterns and characteristics reflected in practical issues.

Inadequate Position Construction and Timely Analysis & Judgment of Online Public Opinion: How to View Excessive Guidance of Online Public Opinion by Media Leading to Public Awareness Being Driven by Public Opinion

I. Renew Ideas and Establish the Concept of Scientifically Handling Online Public Opinion and Public Opinion Guidance

Establish the concept of respect, effective management, calm response and correct guidance. At present, society is in a period of frequent emergencies. Leaders at all levels must enhance risk prevention awareness, strengthen safety awareness, and pay close attention to online public opinion. In the face of major public opinion incidents, respond calmly, take the initiative to reply, report facts quickly, clarify misunderstandings through various media, strengthen positive guidance, meet the public’s information needs, and effectively resolve public opinion crises. Establish the concept that public opinion response and public opinion guidance are equally important.

In the process of online public opinion response, online public opinion analysis and judgment, media interviews and authoritative information release are integral parts of online public opinion management. In accordance with the principles of “territorial management, hierarchical responsibility, rapid verification, proactive guidance, systematic response and targeted policies”, and through procedures such as quick situation reporting, cautious cause reporting, gradual conclusion release, from simple to complex, and credibility-building and doubt-clearing, emergency plans shall be activated, public opinion guidance topics set, authoritative information released in a timely manner, and media interviews organized to firmly grasp the initiative of public opinion guidance and create a favorable public opinion environment for the proper handling of public opinion incidents. Establish the concept of timely releasing authoritative information to guide and influence media and build a favorable public opinion environment. “Media is everywhere, and everyone is a journalist.”

The public pays attention to online public opinion and spreads information rapidly through mobile phones and other communication tools by sharing and commenting “anytime, anywhere and at will”. Even if authoritative institutions are “negligent” and authoritative information lags behind, public opinion hotspots will still take shape quickly.

Once online public opinion incidents occur, governments and competent authorities shall release authoritative information in a timely and orderly manner to guide the perspective, content and tendency of media coverage, so as to influence public opinion, prevent some media from exaggerating facts, being dominated by rumors and speculations, and individual public opinion incidents from being distorted and hyped.

Establish the concept of multi-media cooperation in handling public opinion and guiding public discourse. Faced with an environment of profound changes in the media landscape, information dissemination and public opinion formation, only by giving full play to the advantages of both traditional and new media and fostering the concept of multi-media joint operations can the overall strength of various media be utilized to create a sound and upward online public opinion environment. For traditional media, leverage their credibility and influence to act as the main front in guiding and shaping online public opinion; for new media such as the Internet, innovate management thinking, amplify the positive energy of grassroots online voices, actively guide them to channel public sentiments, gather public consensus, and give play to their roles as new platforms, channels and positions for public opinion guidance.

II. Integrate Resources to Improve the Supporting Capacity for Public Opinion Response and Guidance

Clarify the Internet management mechanism. Establish a three-level Internet supervision system at “provincial (autonomous region), municipal and county levels” to take charge of Internet information, guide, coordinate and urge competent authorities of the Internet industry, agencies in charge of cracking down on cyber crimes and other relevant departments to strengthen Internet information management, so as to provide organizational guarantee for the orderly development of public opinion management.

Meanwhile, strengthen the development of three teams: online spokespersons, online public opinion information officers and online commentators, who are jointly responsible for the response and public opinion guidance of online public opinion. This creates a new pattern of online public opinion management featuring overall coordination by Internet information authorities, active response by public opinion departments, close cooperation by various media and online news outlets, and integration of publicity, guidance and management.

Strengthen Public Opinion Position Construction

Establish a multi-media mindset, integrate information resources of various media, build an online publicity platform, and create an all-media public opinion communication position featuring interaction and joint operations between online and traditional media. Innovate communication methods, expand channels, enrich forms, strengthen the management of online media and self-media, improve the government’s ability to release information in the new media era, publish key decisions, arrangements and policy documents of the Party and government on the online publicity platform in an authentic manner, disseminate them to the society accurately and timely, communicate with the public through replies, understand demands, clarify doubts, respond to requests for help, and effectively defuse social negative sentiments.

During the occurrence and evolution of sudden online public opinion incidents, timely conduct multi-channel and multi-form real-time reports on false coverage, malicious hype, deliberate exaggeration and irrational performances online, strengthen positive guidance, expose and eliminate rumors, issue truth-clarifying statements, stabilize public sentiment, and provide an all-round communication position for the effective resolution of various public opinion crises.

Establish an efficient public opinion monitoring and analysis platform. Continuously monitoring changes in online public opinion and timely grasping the trends of hot online public opinion are basic requirements for improving the quality of online public opinion management. A public opinion monitoring and analysis system is a software system developed based on statistical theory, information technology, Internet search engine technology and big data mining technology, which automatically captures hot topics and key issues from massive online information, predicts possible development trends, and generates online public opinion analysis reports. With the help of the system to obtain public opinion information and reports, analysts conduct timely research and judgment, fully grasp the development trend of public opinion incidents, and provide technical support for improving the overall control and judgment ability of online public opinion information.

III. Address Both Symptoms and Root Causes to Establish a Long-Term Mechanism for Online Public Opinion Response and Public Opinion Guidance

Improve the online public opinion monitoring and reporting mechanism. Establish and improve a full-time, all-day and all-round online public opinion monitoring system covering counties (districts) horizontally and various departments (units) vertically, implement a 24-hour online public opinion monitoring duty system, realize cross-tracking and monitoring of online public opinion, ensure the detection of public opinion at the earliest time, and seize the initiative of work. Establish systems of daily summary, weekly analysis and monthly summary, and adopt reporting methods of one case one report, regular domestic reports and dual reports for major online public opinion to submit online public opinion information in a timely manner and provide references for decision-making. Improve the online public opinion judgment and management mechanism.

To effectively control the changes of online public opinion in emergencies and better prevent and control online public opinion, response plans must be formulated in advance. The formulated plans include a general joint emergency plan for online public opinion and hierarchical joint emergency plans for online public opinion, covering four levels: Level I (extra-serious), Level II (major), Level III (relatively serious) and Level IV (general); as well as special joint emergency plans for online public opinion (including departmental plans, regional plans, institutional plans and single plans for major events).

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