scholarly journals China vaccine scandal rattles public's confidence and tests government

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Chen ◽  
Liang Gao
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Regulation System ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese Physicians ◽  
First Time ◽  
Chinese Social Media

In July 2018, two of the China’s largest vaccine makers had been revealed providing defective children vaccines, which induce great outrage sweeping Chinese social media in last month. 650,000 doses of diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccines and 110,000 doses of rabies vaccines did not reach the potency standard and sold in at least 10 provincial areas. This is not the first time for this kind of vaccine scandal and the Chinese government has now been investigating the involved companies. As Chinese physicians and surgeons, we DO hope to supervise and witness the government to improve the health regulation system and restore the public’s confidence.

Who is Setting Emotions? A Comparative Study on Emotion Diffusion in Social Media among Public, Government and Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhuan Zhou ◽  
Yi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Time Point

BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media served as the main platform for information exchange, through which the Chinese government, media and public would spread information. At the same time, a variety of emotions interweave, and the public emotions would also be affected by the government and media. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the types, trends and relationships of emotional diffusion in Chinese social media among the public, the government and the media under the pandemic of COVID-19 (December 30,2019, to July 1,2020) . METHODS In this paper, Python 3.7.0 and its data crawling framework Scrapy 1.5.1 are used to write a web crawler program to search for super topics related to COVID-19 on Sina Weibo platform of different keywords . Then, we used emotional lexicon to analyze the types and trends of the public, government and media emotions on social media. Finally cross-lagged regression was applied to build the relationships of different subjects’ emotions. RESULTS The highlights of our study are threefold: (1) The public, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in China; (2) Emotional diffusion shows a certain change over time, and negative emotions are obvious in the initial phase of the pandemic, with the development of the pandemic, positive emotions surpass negative emotions and remain stable. (3)The impact among the three main emotions with the period as the time point is weak, while the impact of emotion with the day as the time point is relatively obvious. The emotions of the public and the government impact each other, and the media emotions can guide the public emotions. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study of comparing pubic, government and media emotions on the social media during COVID-19 pandemic in China. The pubic, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the pandemic. And the government and the media have better effect on short-term emotional guidance. Therefore, when the pandemic suddenly occurs, the government and the media should intervene in time to solve problems and conflicts and diffuse positive and neutral emotions. In this regard, the government and the media can play important roles through social media in the major outbreaks. At the theoretical level, this paper takes China's epidemic environment and social media as the background to provide one of the explanatory perspectives for the spread of emotions on social media. At the some time, because of this special background, it can provide comparison and reference for the research on internet emotions in other countries.

Chinese Citizenry Social Media Pressures and Public Official Responses

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-181
Author(s):  
James Robert Masterson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Public Official ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Access Information ◽  
The Government ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
High Level

Widespread use of social media in China is a double edged sword: social media offers opportunities for the government to connect with society, gauge the opinion of citizens in the public domain, and allow citizens to voice their anger when necessary by blowing off steam online rather than in the streets. However, social media also allows citizens to access information outside of China much more rapidly and efficiently and to link up and communicate with other citizens much more quickly. Social media allows users to share texts, photos, and files, making it much more difficult for the government to control information and to thwart organizing for political purposes. In some instances, the use of social media has forced the Chinese government to take actions that it otherwise would not have done or to reverse actions or policies already set in place. The goal of this chapter is to illustrate the double-edged sword that social media poses to government officials in China, particularly high-level party officials in Beijing.

scholarly journals How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY KING ◽  
JENNIFER PAN ◽  
MARGARET E. ROBERTS
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Strategic Objective ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government

The Chinese government has long been suspected of hiring as many as 2 million people to surreptitiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous and other deceptive writings into the stream of real social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary people. Many academics, and most journalists and activists, claim that these so-called 50c party posts vociferously argue for the government’s side in political and policy debates. As we show, this is also true of most posts openly accused on social media of being 50c. Yet almost no systematic empirical evidence exists for this claim or, more importantly, for the Chinese regime’s strategic objective in pursuing this activity. In the first large-scale empirical analysis of this operation, we show how to identify the secretive authors of these posts, the posts written by them, and their content. We estimate that the government fabricates and posts about 448 million social media comments a year. In contrast to prior claims, we show that the Chinese regime’s strategy is to avoid arguing with skeptics of the party and the government, and to not even discuss controversial issues. We show that the goal of this massive secretive operation is instead to distract the public and change the subject, as most of these posts involve cheerleading for China, the revolutionary history of the Communist Party, or other symbols of the regime. We discuss how these results fit with what is known about the Chinese censorship program and suggest how they may change our broader theoretical understanding of “common knowledge” and information control in authoritarian regimes.

scholarly journals Understanding user satisfaction with Chinese government social media platforms

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Yang ◽  
◽  
Shan Zhao ◽  
Wenyong Li ◽  
Richard Evans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government

Introduction. The purpose of this paper is to understand government social media from the perspective of user satisfaction and to evaluate it in the context of presentation, content and utility of the government affairs' microblogs in China. Method. Based on the comprehensive information theory, this study will generalise descriptions about the factors affecting the user satisfaction in the existing research. Analysis. Taking Chinese government affairs microblogs as examples, the paper utilises structural equation modelling to analyse an online survey study. Results. Its result indicates that presentation, content and utility have a positive influence on user satisfaction with Chinese government social media platforms. Conclusions. This study gets rid of the oversimplified description of the application of government social media, and could provide policy reference for subsequent adoption strategies of government social media.

scholarly journals Beliefs and Attitude towards Political Advertising During Malaysia's GE14 Political Tsunami

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-299
Author(s):  
Wee-Ming Lau ◽  
László Józsa ◽  
Yoong-Wai Chan ◽  
Yee-Ling Fong ◽  
Hiram Ting ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Reasoned Action ◽  
Political Advertising ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Young Voters ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The Government ◽  
First Time ◽  
Alliance Form

The recent General Election in Malaysia has seen the opposition alliance form the government for the first time in its history. The tsunami that changed the country's political landscape has largely been attributed to the participation of young voters and the effect of political advertising transmitted through social media. Drawing upon the theory of reasoned action, the study tests the scale of beliefs about political advertising in relation to attitude towards political advertising among young voters. While the first phase of the study validated the belief components, the second phase tested and confirmed the effect of the belief components on attitude. As a result, three belief components of political advertising were extracted, including core values, actual values,andexternal values. The findings indicated that young Malaysian voters hold unfavourablebeliefs aboutpolitical advertising. Moreover, the beliefs about advertising’s core and external values have a direct effect on attitude towards political advertising. Given young voters use social media for nearly every aspect of their lives, the findings underscore the importance of understanding the potential effect of negative political advertising and its external elements during election campaigns.

Understanding citizen engagement and concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic in China: a thematic analysis of government social media

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 865-884
Author(s):  
Lijuan Luo ◽  
Siqi Duan ◽  
Shanshan Shang ◽  
Wenfei Lyu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
User Participation ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Citizen Engagement ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

PurposeIn crises such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, governments need to act in time to lead citizens toward rational reactions and disclose information effectively to the public. This paper aims to understand the content published by the government and identify how citizen engagement relates to content type and emotional valence.Design/methodology/approachThe grounded theory approach was adopted and nine types of content posted by the government were observed. The data were obtained from “People's Daily”, an official Sina Weibo account representing the voice of the Chinese government, from January 3 to June 22 in 2020.FindingsThe analysis shows that information related to emotional support and social mobilization were the most reposted, while those mentioning immoral and illegal incidents were the most liked and commented. Also, it was found that positive posts tend to attract more likes, yet with fewer reposts than neutral posts.Originality/valueThe authors adopted thematic analysis and focused on the impact of post content and valence on user participation behavior. This study expands the existing literature. The government can improve crises management capability by learning about citizen engagement behaviors on social media.

scholarly journals Crisis Coordination and the Role of Social Media in Response to COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 698-705
Author(s):  
Yiran Li ◽  
Yanto Chandra ◽  
Naim Kapucu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Government ◽  
Use Of Social Media

The commentary addresses the government’s role in mitigating information asymmetry problems during pandemic crisis response. We use the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, as a case to show the use of social media as a key mechanism in shaping the actions of the central government in its coordination with the local governments during the pandemic response. The Chinese government effectively collaborated with a social media platform to not only create a dedicated channel to allow citizens to post information about the pandemic to accelerate the speed of relief but also mobilize citizens and nonprofit organizations to support government response and recovery efforts. This suggests that social media can provide a venue for the government to not only tackle the information overload but also mitigate the friction among levels of governments.

scholarly journals Public Sentiment on Chinese Social Media during the Emergence of COVID19

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingdan Lu ◽  
Jennifer Pan ◽  
Yiqing Xu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Public Welfare ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Aggressive Action ◽  
The Government ◽  
Personal Reflections

When COVID-19 first emerged in China, there was speculation that the outbreak would trigger public anger and weaken the Chinese regime. By analyzing millions of social media posts from Sina Weibo made between December 2019 and February 2020, we describe the contours of public, online discussions pertaining to COVID-19 in China. We find that discussions of COVID-19 became widespread on January 20, 2020, consisting primarily of personal reflections, opinions, updates, and appeals. We find that the largest bursts of discussion, which contain simultaneous spikes of criticism and support targeting the Chinese government, coincide with the January 23 lockdown of Wuhan and the February 7 death of Dr. Li Wenliang. Criticisms are directed at the government for perceived lack of action, incompetence, and wrongdoing—in particular, censoring information relevant to public welfare. Support is directed at the government for aggressive action and positive outcomes. As the crisis unfolds, the same events are interpreted differently by different people, with those who criticize focusing on the government’s shortcomings and those who praise focusing on the government’s actions.

scholarly journals Empirical Research on the Downturn in Church Attendance in Australia: The youth without Religion

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. p6
Author(s):  
Ransford Kwabena. Awuku-Gyampoh ◽  
Justina Sarpong Akoto ◽  
Catherine Ocran ◽  
Bah Formijang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Social Media Presence ◽  
The Government ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Church

The church has played a significant role in the lives of Australia’s people since the European settlement. It used to provide several welfare services such as educational, health, and orphanages, even more than the government. Australian churches played a significant role in shaping the culture of Australians. Australia was the only country with no newspaper on Sunday as they kept Sunday as a regular holiday and kept everything closed. Indeed, for Australia’s farmers, religion was so important that they decided to remain clear of their religion and, in 1901, to lead up the Federation. As the years passed, church attendance reduced, and others chose no religion. Few considered religion as least important, resulting in an overall decline in Australia’s churches. The paper reiterated the downturn in church attendance in Australia, found reasons for the downturn, and how the youth can be driven to attend the church. Innovation, discipleship, evangelism, oneness, care, hospitality, service to the community, and social media presence were discovered to be strategies for motivating the younger generation, first-time worshippers and new converts to the church.

scholarly journals Unfolding determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in China (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fulian Yin ◽  
Zhaoliang Wu ◽  
Xinyu Xia ◽  
Meiqi Ji ◽  
Yanyan Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Vaccine Acceptance ◽  
Reproduction Ratio ◽  
Inactivated Vaccines ◽  
Chinese Social Media

BACKGROUND China is at the forefront of global efforts to develop COVID-19 vaccines and has five fast-tracked candidates in the final-stage, large scale human clinical trials tests. Layered on top of public engagement, making an informed and judicious choice is a catch-22 for the Chinese government in the context of COVID-19 vaccination promotion. OBJECTIVE In this study, public opinions in China are analyzed via public dialogues on Chinese social media, based on which the views on COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination of Chinese netizens are investigated. We recommend strategies for promoting vaccination programs in the most populous country based on in-depth understanding of the challenges in risk communication and social mobilizations. METHODS We proposed a novel emotional dynamics model SRS/I to analyze the opinion transmission paradigms on Chinese social media. Coupled with meta-analysis and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, the emotion polarity of individual opinion is examined in contexts. RESULTS We collected more than 1.75 million Weibo messages about COVID-19 vaccines from January to October in 2020. According to the public opinion reproduction ratio (R_0), the dynamic propagation of those messages can be classified into three-stage: the Ferment period (R_0,1.1360), the Evolution period (R_0, 2.8278) and the Transmission period (R_0, 3.0729). Significantly, the topics on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in China are emerging from the landscape of public opinion transmission, such as Price, side effects, and the like. From September to October, 18.3% people held the idea that the vaccine price is high and gets 38.1% “likes,” while 35.9% people regarded it as inexpensive with 25.0% “likes.” The netizen’s emotional polarity on side effects is also the aspect of our research. We got 47.7% positive and 31.9% negative comments. We also captured that the inactivated vaccines aroused much more heated discussion than any other type of vaccine. It accounts for 53% of Discussions of all types’ vaccines, 42% of Forwards, 56% of Comments, and 49% of Likes. CONCLUSIONS Most Chinese hold that the vaccine is cheaper than previously thought, while some claim they could not afford it for their entire family. The Chinese are inclined to be positive to side effects over time and proud of China’s development regarding vaccines. Nevertheless, they have a collective misunderstanding about inactivated vaccines, insisting that inactivated vaccines are safer than other vaccines. Reflecting on those collective responses, the unfolding determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance provide illuminating benchmarks for vaccine-promoting policy-makings.

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