（1） Research background
With the development of Internet technology and the popularization of smart phones, coupled with their advantages of portability and relatively low price, mobile phones have gradually replaced computers and become the main carrier for users to obtain information. Social media is gradually developing into a major platform for people to obtain information and exchange opinions. With the advantages of immediacy, interactivity, and popularization, the role of social media in the dissemination of major public emergencies is becoming increasingly prominent.
Like everything else, social media public opinion is a double-edged sword. If used properly, it can fully reflect the social situation and promote social stability and healthy development. However, if used improperly, it will blur the mainstream of social development and confuse people’s thoughts and hearts.
The problem of network deviance caused by social media users has also become one of the reasons for the complexity of the current online public opinion environment. On the Internet, a platform for expression without national boundaries and race, every user can speak freely with a virtual identity, including both rational opinions and irrational emotional catharsis. The openness of the Internet blurs the relationship between rights and obligations in reality, not only providing a “protective umbrella” for the transmission of false information , but also making the Internet a “hotbed” for slandering others. Therefore, under the new situation where the communication pattern has undergone a major change, more attention should be paid to the guidance and governance of public opinion on online social media, and a clear online space should be provided for the general public .
（2） Research significance
From a practical point of view, while social media promotes the development of social democratization in China, it still has problems such as irrationality and vulgarity. Moreover, its development and prosperity are also accompanied by a series of negative effects. This article, through the explanation of the dissemination and guidance mechanism of public opinion on online social media, is conducive to effective social governance and timely public opinion guidance. By deeply studying the occurrence and development laws of public opinion on social media and accurately grasping its generation and dissemination path, it can provide a reference for social governance and provide a reference for ensuring social stability and long-term peace and security .
2.Factors influencing the spread of public opinion on online social media
The generation and development of public opinion on online social media are influenced by a variety of complex social factors, rather than a single factor. Both the government and the media should fully realize the importance of guiding and responding to public opinion on online social media. Understanding and mastering the factors that influence the spread of public opinion on online social media is not only conducive to the government departments and media units to correctly analyze and effectively respond to public opinion on online social media, but also plays an important role in enhancing the credibility and authority of the government and the media themselves.
（1） Content level
The popularity of mobile networks and social media has greatly reduced the cost of public information dissemination and opinion exchange, enriching public opinion topics while also complicating the public opinion environment. In real life, events that occur locally or in a certain region can easily be magnified in the online environment and become public opinion topics with national influence. Public opinion topics with wide-ranging influence will trigger related events due to their own topic attributes, which will not only prolong the development period of public opinion on online social media, but may also lead to distortion of topics.
In addition to the normal evolution, we also need to be especially careful about the distortion and reversal of public opinion on social media. Among them, public opinion distortion refers to the phenomenon that the topic deviates from the normal transmission path during the dissemination process. The fission-like dissemination mode brought about by the emergence of social media such as Weibo and WeChat makes social media particularly suitable for carrying fragmented information. However, these characteristics also provide an environment for the distortion of public opinion. First, the control system of social media is still imperfect, and various true and false information is flooded in it, especially some lawless elements make some inflammatory and deceptive remarks in the name of ordinary people; secondly, since netizens are composed of different members of the public, their own cultural knowledge level and information discrimination ability are different, and the information they publish is sometimes only based on the judgment and interpretation of part of what they have seen and understood. This relatively one-sided information can also cause distortion of public opinion; finally, the emotions of the Internet public can also affect the distortion of public opinion. Especially in incidents involving vulnerable groups, the “empathy effect” of netizens gives rise to anxiety, related public opinion triggers heated discussions, and netizens’ insecurity of “putting themselves in other people’s shoes” makes the “empathy effect” take effect repeatedly. Driven by anxiety, it is less likely for netizens to maintain a calm ability to discern information.
（2） Government level
In the past, especially under the planned economic system, the Chinese government has mostly controlled event reporting with a strong image. However, in the era of Internet communication, where the communication pattern has undergone major changes, if the government continues to adopt the old practices, its image will be damaged. Therefore, the government is paying more and more attention to participating in the process of event reporting and public opinion guidance with a proactive attitude.
The media plays an important role in reflecting the government’s image. If the media is absent in reporting on hot events, the government’s image will be damaged. As a public resource, the media represents the public’s right to know. The government should use media resources reasonably in the process of governing to satisfy the public’s right to know and shape its own image and credibility. The improvement of the government’s image is achieved by forming a good interaction with the media and using the media to shape the government’s credibility. At the same time, the media uses the relevant policies promulgated by the government to further expand its positive influence and promote the formation of a close communication interaction system between the government and the media, which benefits each other.
（3）Media level
In the social media environment, the traditional discourse communication structure has been reconstructed, and the content production capacity and information dissemination speed of social media have been increasingly improved , which has led to changes in the “agenda setting” process in event reporting. With the change in the role of the audience, the boundaries between the media agenda, the public agenda and public behavior of social media have gradually become blurred. Among many public opinion topics, social media has become the main body of setting social issues, setting the agenda as soon as an event occurs, and forming public opinion on this basis, which has profoundly affected the dissemination of public opinion on online social media.
The characteristics and attributes of social media platforms themselves also fall into the category of discussion at the media level. First of all, it is well known that one of the main characteristics of social media is its openness. The change in the communication pattern brought about by this openness is not only reflected in the immediacy of time, but also in the openness and closure of space. In the process of spreading information related to events, the continuous fragmented information presented by social media often suspends the truth of the matter under the influence of the attributes of the social media circle that the audience is influenced by during the selection process. And this circle attribute has the dual characteristics of openness and closure.
（4）Public level
Public participation is a huge driving force for the development of public opinion on social media. This participation is achieved through the public’s online expression. Public online expression refers to a kind of online behavior in which the public uses the Internet platform to express their words, thoughts, emotions, and attitudes. After a certain social hot topic occurs, the public successively participates in the discussion of the event and the spread of information. In this participation behavior, the public’s curiosity is reflected. In the traditional communication model, the public’s curiosity is satisfied through a linear communication method, and the public’s curiosity belongs to the stage of passive satisfaction. With the development and popularization of social media, the entry threshold of communication has been lowered, and everyone can become a self-media. The public is no longer satisfied with passively receiving information, but actively seeks the latest information to satisfy their curiosity, just as the details of many hot events are exposed to the public through social media platforms for the first time.
In addition to being driven by curiosity, the public’s online expressions also reflect herd mentality to a certain extent. For hot events, once a certain public opinion trend is formed among the group, it is easy for individuals in the group to change their original attitudes under the influence of group pressure, and then behave in a way that conforms to the group’s public opinion trend, that is, the emergence of herd mentality.
In the social media environment, the public’s ability to express themselves has been unprecedentedly improved . Everyone can gain the right to speak through their own “microphone” – social media platform. However, in the real online environment, there is indeed a situation of differentiation in the right to speak, and only a small number of people have the right to speak. Most of these people have a certain influence and can quickly grasp the latest trends and guide public opinion in a rapidly changing environment. In the online environment, people who have the right to speak are called “opinion leaders.” The existence of opinion leaders is conducive to the construction of online public space. For example, in hot events, opinion leaders represented by authoritative experts, scholars, professionals, etc. discuss events and analyze problems, which will not only make the situation clearer and clearer, but also satisfy the curiosity and desire to know of the public. Through the positive role of opinion leaders, public opinion can be effectively guided to avoid the wanton spread of rumors that disturb the people’s hearts and prevent the occurrence of group polarization that is not conducive to social stability.
It is worth noting that the public today does not blindly pursue an opinion leader as in the traditional single-line passive communication model, but is autonomously selective and actively seeking as many opinion leaders as possible to avoid being influenced by one opinion. In addition, the public does not always agree with the opinions of opinion leaders, but begins to examine the development and evolution of events with a questioning spirit. In view of this, we should consciously play the positive guidance function of opinion leaders to ensure the correct public opinion orientation. In the process of the occurrence and development of events, authoritative experts and professionals are encouraged to actively participate in the discussion of the event, seize the high ground of public opinion, shape the role of opinion leaders, and play their role in guiding public opinion and distinguishing the true from the false.
Їн Чжай
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