How can a small incident cause a great deal of love

In recent years, withGood governanceThe depth of the situation has allowed for effective control of major incidents. At the same time, however, the phenomenon of “minor events that trigger great emotion” has often had a significant impact on the image of the region, grass-roots governance, public awareness and social sentiment. This paper analyses such phenomena and proposes the concept of “micro-powerlessness”, taking into account their characteristics, causes and governance, to facilitate precise identification, effective response and deeper research and discussion。

In the public sphere, there are many cases of “minor incidents causing great emotion”. There have been a number of emotional events since the beginning of the year, such as guangxi's "liang suk-soo" and wuhan university's "liu shengmen" events, which have not been significant, but have spread fermentation in very short periods of time, with even national repercussions. An analysis of the common features of such emotional events and the logic behind them can be briefly summed up as “micro-authority”。

The so-called micro-rights situation refers to the rapid spread of micro-, localized and seemingly ordinary events, such as individual behaviour and small-scale conflicts, which, in the context of digitalized information dissemination, spread rapidly through the exposure of web platforms, generate widespread public interest, discussion and emotional expression, which in turn shapes an event of influence or even magnitude. Micro-power situations generally involve power issues at the end of the grass-roots level of society, which often triggers public psychological perceptions of fair justice and the hegemony of privileges, and in a short period of time generate considerable public opinion. In micro-power situations, public opinion and public sentiment, through the events themselves, generate attitudes and opinions about the decision-making, behaviour and management of power-holders with public power or influence, which in turn have an important impact on the image, credibility and subsequent direction of decision-making by the subjects concerned. Properly understanding and responding to micro-power situations is a challenge that must be faced in the new information-dissemination environment by a wide range of powers, including government departments, enterprises and social organizations。

The main features of micro-powerism

(i) small but rapid dissemination

The event itself is usually small in scope, often involving one or two or several people in a conflict or dispute, and concerns only the interests of a small number of persons involved. However, in the current era of new media, because of the low dissemination threshold, the difficulty of publishing, the diversity of channels and the speed of fermentation, small incidents in some cases tend to be the subject of an exponential increase in the rate of transmission, owing to their own labeling characteristics. By way of example, two cars met in the local countryside on a small road, where the female driver shook her husband's fire-fighting pass, “pushing” the other side to make way for a car dispute, but after the incident was uploaded on the network by the male driver involved, the threat of “light certificate” triggered a “power sensitivity” among the population, causing widespread online attention, with a number of topics on the national hot list, and a high level of passion lasting for more than 20 days, which led to a common road dispute developing into a widespread public dissatisfaction with the phenomenon of “privileges”。

(ii) few subjects involved, but extensive upgrading involved

Although micro-power relationships are few and do not directly concern the public interest, the public tends to exhibit a marked emotional pattern, with public opinion naturally tending to defend the interests of the weaker party in the context of the “facilitation” of the unknown. When dealing with such incidents, the authorities concerned are vulnerable to being involved without being fair and open, leading to the triggering of social sentiments and to a rally of public opinion on the use of public power. For example, in a case of beatings in a certain area this year, the incident itself involved only hotels for the perpetrators and tourists for the victims, but the law enforcement at the grass-roots level was questioned about the lack of distinction, the lack of justice, the poor environment, social unrest and, ultimately, the escalation of fermentation. Following the establishment of a local joint investigation team, five local police and brigade officials responsible for mediating the matter were held accountable。

(iii) low-impact but large-scale development variability

Micro-power events are simple in nature, simple in their circumstances, with a relatively small group of people involved, and have little direct impact, but in the course of dealing with them, inappropriate law enforcement practices and failure to intervene in a timely manner against negative information, inappropriate statements or cyber rumours may lead to an unlimited increase in mishandling, an increasing number of people are involved in the spread of events or rumours, public sentiment is constantly exacerbated during the transmission process, and minor incidents may turn into large-scale emotional storms, culminating in a “window break”。

The “window breaker effect” was first proposed by united states political scientist james wilson and criminologist george kälin, who found that minor crime and bad behaviour, if not addressed in a timely manner, could lead to more serious crime and social problems. For example, if there were graffiti on a wall that had not been cleaned up, it would soon be covered with more graffiti and possibly even more damage. In cases of micro-empowerment, such as in the handling of the "sweet sister" incident, irregularities such as the "civilian police" “discovering the name of the male driver while hiding the name of the female driver” have raised questions about local justice. In some places, for example, in the case of a land rover female beating, the information that “the female driver is a deputy director of the city's administration” “detention at home” has been transmitted to the local authorities, and rumours have spread, prompting a web-wide look and causing the small incident to ferment itself。

(iv) investigation is difficult but leads to repair costs high

Micro-power events are clear and simple, and their own investigations are less difficult, so that the grass-roots sector does not need to spend too much resources to restore the truth of events, but often because of a misdeed in the chain of law enforcement or because of the interest of individual public officials, public opinion extends individual events to such dimensions as social ethics, public order, the culture of the rule of law, political ecology, etc., which complicates simple events, diversifys single issues and escalates grass-roots events. For example, in one instance, there was a simple and clear incident of beatings with alcohol, which, as a result of the unfair treatment of individual law enforcement personnel at the grass-roots level, eventually evolved into a month-long investigation of reports and anti-corruption operations, which were managed by an example of conflict management to the provincial level. The events attracted sustained public attention throughout the country, and for several years there was still a geographical impression of “violence and blackness” in the area, which was devastating to the local image, whose cost of repairing the image far exceeded the cost of the investigation and disposal of the events, with a strong long-term effect. To this day, people are unwittingly wearing “coloured glasses” in the face of the events on the site, and are making negative perceptions。

Paradigm analysis of micro-authority

(i) the ecological aspect

The environment for the dissemination of public opinion has changed, and the low threshold and high frequency of self-inflicted media creation has placed the risk of a state of emergency everywhere. The 55th statistical report on the development of the internet in china shows that, as of december 2024, the number of internet users in the country was 1,118. 8 billion, with an internet penetration rate of 78. 6 per cent. Currently, the number of social media users and the frequency of their promotion are no longer dependent on authoritative platforms, but are highly autonomous, diffuse and highly volatile. The high degree of autonomy is manifested in the fact that any small event can be published and spread through social platforms; that its proliferation is no longer based solely on the media; that internet users reproduce and comment enough to push heat; and that its extreme instability is that any small event may be given emotional expression during the secondary transmission, with the effect of incitement or resonance。

(ii) public psychology

In recent years, micro-empowerment has often subverted the conventional public perception of fermentation at surreal speeds and unexpected contact points. Paradigms of common sense have revealed public psychological vulnerability, which stems from the balance between expectations and expectations of interaction among different social groups. Public expectations include information expectations and emotional expectations. Information expectations are expectations generated by the public on the basis of objective information about events themselves, and emotional expectations are expectations that have been built up over a long period of time, constrained by the cultural context of the social system, showing clear value, accumulation and longevity. It is not hard to see that much more of the fermentation of micro-power than of the public's emotional expectations is difficult to meet. Social injustice and weak law enforcement can be extremely explosive, rooted in the sensitivity of power and emotional frustration of the public and an endogenous driving force. For example, in the case of a barbeque in one place, the power and interests of individual law enforcement officials are shielded, resulting in an abuse of public power that runs counter to public expectations. The public not only defends the rights and interests of vulnerable victims of the incident, but also defends its own interests in a common sense, prompting the event to be translated into a spontaneous, citizen-to-civil society-to-civil society action to report corruption。

(iii) the cognitive aspect of love

PartBase cadresMicro-power use is skewed and there is a lack of awareness. The essence of micro-empowerment is that it can be rapidly fertilized and even out of control by a small number of grass-roots cadres, who, on the one hand, expose the work of a small number of grass-roots cadres and, on the other hand, reflect a lack of awareness and attention to the status of monitoring the situation. The cognitive deficiencies in micro-authority include many manifestations, such as trance, hysteria and ostrich mentality, which often overlap with one. Some law enforcement officials at the grass-roots level use public power on an optional basis, neglecting the risk of the under-line transmission of events, and when a situation occurs, it is fortunate that it is not fermented enough to ignore the reaction of public opinion, which eventually leads to “slowness and slowness”; when the heat rises, the internet is shielded by an ostrich mentality and passive waits for automatic cooling, such as the disappearance of a student in a school, the delay in responding to numerous questions and speculations from the public, and attempts to “live out” public opinion, eventually leading to a disappearance which turns into a “conspiratorial theory” and continues to fertilise on a web platform; when the situation is difficult to cool, the use of public power to “press” or “clean up” public opinion is unleashed, with every effort to delete and remove the text. In the case of a fight in one place, the local police have used public power to request the posting of “closed wheat”, which has led to further complexity and difficulty in dealing with it. When feelings have to be responded to, it is too much to hide, to avoid, to try to get through again, which leads to a loss of control。

(iv) disposal mechanisms

In the era of equal access to information, the power to monitor public opinion has become increasingly accessible, and the ability and perception of grass-roots officials to exercise micro-powers, when they have not kept pace with the evolution of the situation, has become a major source of scrutiny in matters of concern. In addition, in the context of the current vertical system of governance, there is a phenomenon of top-down “scaling” between vertical levels of government, with administrative tasks and responsibilities being passed down to grass-roots governments through vertical systems of governance. At the grass-roots level, there is widespread pressure for accountability through layers of stress. When the pressure is passed on to the disposal department, the “disappearance” becomes a seemingly convenient common tool. Upon the issuance of a “quick disposal” order from the higher authorities, the grass-roots authorities resorted to pressure disposal as “disappearing”, threats of “go-to-door enforcement”, notification of “avoidance is no more”. In addition, the regime of dealing with “first-accountable persons” on the basis of excruciating circumstances, which are subject to inescapable treatment ratione loci, is often caught up in the conflict between dealing with the inability to deal with the burden of accountability, and is easily understood as simply “disappearing” in order to achieve the appearance of “necessity” and, therefore, threats of omission, unlawful detention, etc. In addition, some grass-roots sectors lacked the experience and tools to deal with them in a responsive manner, and they were at the forefront of a responsive response, often making it difficult to obtain effective help from their superiors in the first place. In addition, the lag and rigidity of the system have led to a certain loss of the golden response period, which is often followed by a number of episodes, public opinion and attention and tone. When a student jumps from a building, the public security and education departments of their territories lack the experience to respond and do not gain the confidence of public opinion, leading to “conspiracies” and rumours, and even the involvement of foreign forces in fishing, the final sound of which was quelled by a joint investigation into the management of the emotional situation, and the return of reason to peace。

Paths to protection and governance of micro-rights

(i) increased level of awareness

In the era of equal rights to information, the right to monitor public opinion is being given equal status, and the public is using the internet to provide real-time oversight, monitoring of matters, and a wave can trigger a storm. In order to cope with the current changes in the internet environment and ecological conditions, it is important to raise awareness. One is breaking sensitive anxiety thinking. In the current communications environment, “elimination” is not only not conducive to the resolution of events, but rather tends to breed larger secondary storms, and the inertia and ineffective practice of “emerging one and deleting one” should be broken. The second is to improve the risk assessment capability. One of the reasons for this outbreak is the emotional expression of real problems online by the public. In the face of emotional events, the cadres must face up to the reality itself and assess the risk points of such events through the “problem-responsible-assess-responding-responding-resolve” model, so as to be precise in preventing potential emotional storms and to achieve the “discovery, solving together” effect. Thirdly, there should be an end to micropower. It is not difficult to see how it is easy to “turn over” in the face of public opinion, mainly because of the arbitrary abuse of power by a small number of cadres at the grass-roots level, which makes it impossible for the administration of justice to cope with oversight, for the local authorities to deal with inquiries, and for those responsible to do so, which leads to a high number of hot spots, low flash points and a low level of tolerance among public opinion。

(ii) sound scientific response systems

In the age of artificial intelligence, information production and dissemination are more diversified. At the same time, ai technology has the capacity to produce mass information in seconds for processing, with mixed information in the public domain, which is increasingly becoming an amplifier of rumours. The abundance of means of communication has greatly increased the difficulty of grass-roots response guidance, and individual and case-by-case disposal experience has become difficult to cope with mass information generated by current fission proliferation. Therefore, government departments need to establish a system of scientific and standard response guidance, use large data technology systems to take stock of developments, simulate the ecological environment, construct a complete “discovery-assessment-response-direction-rehabilitation” process, and provide clear guidance on when, when, how and how to respond to an emergency, and how to restore confidence and trust in the event of a negative impact。

(iii) improved integrated disposal mechanisms

In the current context of territorialization, cadres at the grass-roots level are not only under stress of accountability but also lack the capacity to respond on their own. Therefore, efforts should be made to improve the interlocking mechanism to address the lack of resources and capacity at the grass-roots level. One is to focus on top-down connections. In case of sudden onset, the inefficiency of reporting and approval at the lower levels should be avoided, the pressure of superiors should be broken, the difficulty of dealing with fear should be overcome, and the possibility of micro-empowerment should be reduced. The second is the integration of diverse forces. At present, some departments are not familiar with profiling and treatment, there is no internal reserve of intelligence professionals, there is a lack of intelligence monitoring techniques and, in case of sudden-onset emergencies, there is often a lack of timely and comprehensive information. This requires the integration of a wide range of actors, such as the internet, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the media, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the media, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the media, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public, the public。

(by yang wookun, editor-in-chief, anhui business, and director, centre for data and information, anhui daily)

Source: newsworld, issue 12, 2025