As an important institutional arrangement in modern democracy, government responses play an important role in the public administration of society. While the emergence of microblogging offers opportunities for government response mechanisms, it also directly challenges traditional government response models, exposing inherent government responses and response times to a state of disorder. As a result, the government needs to make a positive shift in attitudes and response patterns to maximize its role in democratic political building。
1 government weibo: new strategy for government response body
The government's response is essentially an interaction between the government and the people in the process of public governance of society, the main purpose of which is to achieve good governance of the social order. It is important to emphasize the interactive nature of government responses, because this understanding is more in line with the cycle of governance systems, thereby highlighting people's initiative in social management. Thus, in the view of the author, the government's response refers to an institutionalized process of interaction between the government's demands and expectations of the public at large, under certain conditions of economic and social development and for the purpose of maintaining public order in society。
In the context of the internet, interaction has become a prominent feature of information dissemination. Since the emergence of microblogging, because of its rapid, concise, interactive and diverse advantages, it has quickly moved beyond newspapers, television stations and forums to become the most popular means of disseminating and sharing information in our country. In december 2013, china ended up with more than 250,000 government microblogging accounts, an increase of 46 per cent over the previous year. As can be seen from this, political microblogging is developing at a fast pace in the country. This reflects the fact that microblogging is popular not only with the general population but also with the government。
In the case of the government's response, the government's microblogging, with its unique features, offers new opportunities for the government to build its response mechanisms. As a platform for public opinion, as opposed to traditional information media, microblogging reduces the organizational and institutional costs of crowding out, and government managers need only use the political microblogging platform to be able to keep abreast of public opinion and thus respond in a targeted way and interact with the population in an instant. In addition, microblogging has been effective in increasing the effectiveness of government responses, from raising issues at the grass-roots level to addressing the issues at the government level, reducing unnecessary misunderstandings and links, facilitating a shift from top-down vertical management to interactive people-care models, facilitating direct communication and communication between the government and the population, and defusing both sides. The dilemma of information asymmetries in social governance helps governments to scientificize and democratize decision-making in response to popular demands. Thus, from this perspective, twitter is the new vehicle for building government response mechanisms in the internet age。
2 discrepancies: the challenge of twitter for traditional government response mechanisms
While the government's response mechanism has opened up new opportunities for the government to build, at the same time, the government's response has been somewhat disorderly, as a result of the strong public opinion-making mechanism that microblogging has also directly challenged traditional government response mechanisms。
The first is the disorderly manner in which governments respond. In our traditional government response mechanisms, press spokespersons play a very important role in clarifying the facts and responding to the demands of the public, which can be said to be the main way in which our traditional government responds. Its agenda is designed to guide public opinion effectively, and authoritative information is regularly published in order to reconcile tensions between the government and the population. However, traditional government responses are often based on the purpose of shaping a good image of government, with news spokespersons often acting as advocates for the image of government, and in responding to popular claims, the messages are often of a more principled and less specific nature, and remain silent about information that affects the interests of government departments, so that government responses are naturally not accepted by the public. In addition, the system of press spokespersons tends to focus on the one-way distribution of information, while ignoring interaction with the public, which is contrary to the original intent of the government's response. This essentially reflects the question that, since the emergence of weibo, the traditional system of press spokespersons has become somewhat limited in its ability to guide public opinion in a timely manner, in keeping with its inherent agenda, and its role in government responses has been significantly compromised。
The second is the disorderly timing of government responses. In traditional information-dissemination societies, government can control information by controlling the mainstream media such as the press, television and radio. From this perspective, in the process of social public governance, government is the central subject of information dissemination. This has allowed the government to respond to people's demands with more time to prepare. But since the emergence of twitter, because of its dramatic accumulation of public opinion, the dissemination of information has broken the “centreized” mode of transmission in the past, anyone who has access to it can publish and disseminate relevant information, rendering the traditional government-controlled information filters completely ineffective. As a result, governments may have access to relevant information at the same time as, and even later than, the internet, before they have accurate information about the events, they are faced with a great deal of public opinion, making their demands against the population in the face of microblogging often unresponsive. In the context of microblogging, the process of public participation in social governance is often time-bound, breaking the time-frame for participation in social governance under traditional media, which requires governments to be informed promptly and quickly about the web, relying on platforms such as microblogging, and preparing to respond in a timely manner to various crises of public opinion triggered by microblogging。
3 change: weibo further refines the government response mechanism
Under the traditional governance model, it is difficult to achieve an effective balance between government response and the microblogging society, which requires a change in response mechanisms and the full realization of the role of the government as a response vehicle。
Change the government response. Weibo is more interactive than the traditional media, and if it is to play its full role in government responses, it is necessary to change the perception of public opinion in traditional government responses and actually to the idea of interacting with people. In this context, for all levels of government and officials, on the one hand, it is necessary to change the concept of work, to develop a conscious sense of using microblogging and to increase the ability to communicate with people. In this post, we have been able to create a working attitude that takes people's minds into account and that is urgent, without saying words, without speaking in official terms, and in a sincere and equal manner, to respond to the issues raised by the netizens in twitter. On the other hand, it is important to continuously foster a rational public opinion among officials at all levels and to confront the interaction of government responses. The reluctance of government officials to interact too often with the population stems from fear and evasion of public opinion. Governments should therefore strengthen the development of rational public opinion among officials at all levels so that they can approach microblogging with an open, democratic mindset, using it as an important channel for understanding people and interacting with them, and moving away from “passive” to “active” responses。
Change the government response model. In traditional government responses, which are typically “vertical” in nature, government responses are carried out via televised, press conferences, webcasts, etc., with news spokespersons as the main focus. The government response model of “tweeting” does not have the characteristics of instant communication and is difficult to meet the demands of the government in a microblogging context. In view of this, it is recommended that the government response model shift to a “networked” “interactive” approach, which builds on traditional response mechanisms and opens up new avenues of government response to form a sound and pluralistic government response system. The government should incorporate political tweets into its response system, actively train political tweets “speakers”, publish relevant government messages in a timely manner, and communicate and communicate on issues raised and reflected by netizens on twitter. At the same time, the government could, in due course, set up a national government microblogging response centre. In addition, a microblogging surveillance mechanism should be set up to monitor the information disseminated at all levels of the microblogging system, so that all levels of government are kept informed of the tweets published by internet users and prepared to respond in advance to the outbreak of microblogging。
(by taiwon college)
