How to Promote Public Engagement and Enhance Sentiment Through Government Social Media During the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

In the period of public health crisis, effective and efficient transmission of crisis information to the public through social media is an important support for achieving social stability and orderly online public engagement. From the perspective of public value management, this study systematically investigated how local government agencies in China used social media to promote public engagement and raise public sentiment during the COVID-19 crisis. Using data captured from the “Wuhan Release” Sina Weibo account, the authors studied the factors that influence public engagement, including information sources, language styles, and media types. Further, it explores the influence of the interactive effects of public value with information sources, language styles, and media types on public engagement and public sentiment. The results show that the consistency of government response content and public value promotes public engagement and raises public sentiment. This research provides enlightenment and ideas for cognition, understanding and governance of public opinion in practice.

Public health agencies’ use of social media for communication during pandemics: a scoping review of the literature

“…PHAs that have earned public trust tend to be more effective in disseminating health messages during pandemics than those with a trust deficit [ 39 , 64 , 65 ]. Not only should PHAs be trustworthy, but they should also actively work to build mutual trust [ 47 ].…”

“…The choice of message tone was another sub-theme. As the language used on social media tends to be more similar to spoken communication rather than written, the effectiveness of PHAs’ health messages was related to the extent to which the messages exhibited a conversational tone [ 38 , 39 , 47 ]. PHAs, however, typically adopted either an authoritative formal tone or an interactive informal tone [ 47 , 54 ].…”

“…As the language used on social media tends to be more similar to spoken communication rather than written, the effectiveness of PHAs’ health messages was related to the extent to which the messages exhibited a conversational tone [ 38 , 39 , 47 ]. PHAs, however, typically adopted either an authoritative formal tone or an interactive informal tone [ 47 , 54 ]. PHAs were more likely to use a formal tone in their social media messaging when emphasizing guidelines, instructions, and warnings [ 68 ].…”

“…Incongruence among PHAs is not uncommon during pandemics, as situations continually evolve [ 65 , 77 , 91 ]. Instances of incongruence have been observed in message volume, the selection of topics addressed, and the timeliness of addressing issues by different PHAs [ 14 , 27 , 40 , 47 , 65 , 79 , 89 , 95 − 98 ]. For example, PHAs’ health messages addressed misinformation differently during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 71 ].…”

Mixed-ownership reform and factor misallocation: Evidence from China

“…It is only when the non-state economy enters SOEs, which assume the role of “shareholders”, that private property rights form an effective incentive mechanism of interest and operator selection. The problem of SOEs’ inefficiency can only be solved fundamentally [ 45 ]. China’s economic growth is partly explained when resources are shifted from inefficient state-owned sectors to efficient, non-state-owned sectors [ 8 ].…”