At present, many systems are referred to as public opinion monitoring systems, and quite a few institutions claim to be capable of conducting public opinion surveillance. This may be deliberate commercial promotion or simply ignorance; it is indeed a beautiful but poisonous mushroom. Online public opinion monitoring is a technical means of automatically crawling website content, which in practice is no different from sending personnel to conduct surveillance indoors.

From the perspective of jurisprudence and ethics, public opinion monitoring as it is often claimed is groundless. Exaggerated commercial publicity often adversely affects the image of institutions and the country, and constitutes an infringement upon society and individuals.

Mitong Public Opinion: A Brief Analysis of the Market Prospect of Public Opinion Monitoring

In fact, public opinion can only be monitored and understood, but not controlled or supervised; otherwise, it would violate the principles of public opinion and constitute an illegal act.

Public opinion issues must be addressed through public opinion monitoring. The goal of public opinion monitoring is not to supervise or control public opinion, but to use technical means to collect online public opinion information, so as to understand social conditions, gather public opinion, and thereby better assist national decision-making, scientific governance, and the building of a harmonious society.

The earliest form of public opinion monitoring was social surveys, where grassroots staff learned about people’s hardships. Today it has evolved into online public opinion monitoring, which uses internet channels and technical means to greatly reduce the cost of social public opinion surveys, which often suffer from insufficient sample size and representativeness. Public opinion monitoring has long been a positive practice adopted by countries and societies, and is a completely reasonable and legitimate positive measure for the state.

Then, how should we properly handle public opinion issues that endanger national and social security, such as rumors and illegal fund-raising activities?

As an old saying goes, “Blocking people’s mouths is harder than blocking a river.” The correct approach is: a public opinion monitoring system detects problems and issues early warnings in a timely manner; in response to crises, a crisis public relations plan is activated immediately, and various public opinion guidance methods are quickly used to clarify the facts — such as official websites, posts on mainstream forums, press conferences, and other forms. We should race against rumors to inform the public of the truth as early as possible, rather than simply and crudely blocking information.

A good public opinion monitoring system should identify problems in real time, quickly formulate a response plan, and distribute information to major websites promptly.

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