Zhang Wei,Wei Fuqian,Yang Yue,2

(1.School of Business Administration,Shenyang Pharmaceutical University,Shenyang 110016,China;2.School of Pharmaceutical Sciences,Tsinghua University,Beijing 100084,China)

Abstract Objective To study the news reports on COVID-19 through comparing the forwarding volume and posting time of microblogs from the government media and non-government media and exploring the advantages and disadvantages of the two in mastering discourse power in public health emergencies,so to provide a reference for the government department to cope with online public opinion.Methods The GooSeeker data mining tool was used to collect the data of the six microblog accounts that reported the COVID-19 from January 1 to June 15,2020.Then the data were analyzed from two aspects of microblog forwarding volume and posting time.Results and Conclusion According to the analysis of the forwarding volume data,the government media had a greater influence on the public during the process of COVID-19.The analysis of the news release time showed that the government media and non-government media had similar ability in discourse power on public health emergencies.This paper proposes the following recommendations for government departments to enhance their abilities to cope with online public opinion on public health emergencies,such as releasing information promptly,cultivating opinion leaders,and reporting the fact to avoid public misunderstandings.

Keywords:COVID-19;online public opinion;agenda-setting

In September 2020,China Internet Network Information Center released the “46th China Statistical Report on Internet Development”,showing that as of June 2020,the number of Chinese Internet users had reached 940 million with an Internet penetration rate of 67%[1].The report also displayed that most of the netizens have junior/senior high school degrees[1].Due to the highly professional characteristics of medical knowledge,most netizens have low recognition of professional knowledge in the medical field.

In recent years,public health emergencies have occurred frequently.Since medicine and health are closely related,health emergencies attract more attention than other incidents,arousing more public concern online.Because of the huge number of netizens and their lack of medical knowledge,online public opinions become an important factor in solving public health emergencies.Effectively guiding online public opinions are crucial for the government departments to respond to public health emergencies.This article studies news reports on the COVID-19 from the forwarding volume and posting time of microblogs by the government media and non-government media to explore the advantages and disadvantages of the two in mastering discourse power in public health emergencies.which will provide a reference for the government department to cope with online public opinions.

1 Basic concept and theories introduction

1.1 Online public opinions

Liu Yi,a scholar at the Institute of Public Opinion of Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences,believes that public opinion is the sum of individual and various social groups’ emotions,attitudes,and thoughts.In certain social space,public opinions are generated due to the stimulation of various events that they care about or are closely related to their interests[2].

Online public opinions are a collection of people’s cognitions,attitudes,emotions,and behavioral tendencies of events,which are generated due to the stimulation of various events and spread through the Internet[3].

1.2 Agenda-setting

The agenda-setting theory originated from Lippman’s classic book “Public Opinion” in 1922.Although he did not use the term agenda-setting in the book,he summarized the idea of agenda setting in the f irst chapter,namely,the news media determined our cognitive map of the world[4].

In 1963,scholar Bernard Cohen put forward the most inf luential formulation of agenda-setting theory.He wrote:“Most of the time,the press may not be successful in telling its readers what to think,but when it tells the readers what to think about something,its achievement is surprisingly successful”[5].

In 1968,scholars Maxwell Mocombs and Donald Shaw used the US presidential election to conduct experiments in Chapel Hill to verify the existence of the agenda-setting theory.They hypothesized that the mass media inf luenced the public’s perception of what was the most important event of the day through the selection and release of news day after day.At the same time,it was believed that there was a causal link between the media and the public’s agenda,that is,after some time,the priority of the news media would become the priority of the public[6].

In 1972,McCombs and Shaw formally proposed the agenda-setting theory,which can be divided into two aspects.The first aspect is the process of dissemination of topic from the media agenda to the public agenda,which is an explicit process.The second aspect is the role of the press when the public constructs these topics and objects in their minds.This is an internal or implicit process[6].Fig. 1 shows that the core argument of the agenda-setting theory means these topics highlighted in the news will become important topics considered by the public over time[3].

Fig.1 The agenda setting role of mass media

1.3 The relationship between agenda-setting theory and online public opinion

Because modern society is becoming more huge and complex.People’s activities are limited to the scope,energy,and attention,it is hard to maintain empirical contact with the external environment and many things related to them.For things beyond their perceptions,People can only learn about them through various news organizations.Therefore,Lipman proposed the term Pseudo-environment.

Pseudo-environment refers to the information environment formed by mass media.It is not a mirror-like representation of the objective reality environment,but one shown to the people made by the mass media through selecting,processing,reporting,and then reconstructing the news[6].Lippman believed that public opinion was a response to a pseudoenvironment,not a response to an objective reality environment[3].

To sum up,the relationship between agendasetting theory and online public opinion can be a pseudo-environment presented by news organizations to the public through news reports,while the public uses the pseudo-environment as the object to express their reactions through the Internet.

2 Research object and data

This article selects the COVID-19 as the research object due to the following considerations.Firstly,the COVID-19 is a major public health emergency with the fastest spread,the widest infection range,and the greatest difficulty in prevention and control since the founding of New China[7].Because it involves professional knowledge in the field of medicine,the public knows little about it and they mainly obtain relevant information through the media,they are vulnerable to media propaganda[8].Secondly,because COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected life of the general public,it prompts the public to pay close attention to the pandemic information,which provides a good opportunity for exploring the advantages and disadvantages of government media and nongovernment media in mastering discourse power in public health emergencies.

This article uses the data capture tool GooSeeker (as of 10:00 on June 18,2020) to obtain the information of the specified microblogs,including content,release time,independent post URL,forwarding volume,number of comments,and number of likes.By comparing the number of microblog posts on the given keywords from different microblog accounts,the following six microblogs are selected as sources of data:Healthy China (Official microblog of the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China),CCTV News,Xinhua Net,Sina News,IFENG Net,and National Business Dally.According to the nature of the host organizations,Healthy China,CCTV News,and Xinhua Net are classified as government media.Meanwhile,Sina News,IFENG net,and National Business Dally are classified as nongovernment media.

This research uses the GooSeeker tool to capture microblog data.The data conditions are as follows.Time range is from January 1 to June 15,2020.Microblog keywords include Xinguan Yiqing,Xinguan Feiyan,and Xinxing Guanzhuang Bingdu.12 394 posts are obtained.Repetitive posts are deleted based on the content,release time,and independent blog post URL.Finally,9 154 posts are obtained.

3 Event analysis

3.1 Forwarding volume analysis

By collecting and sorting out the microblog forwarding volume and post time of the government media and non-government media,a comparison chart of the government media and non-governmental media microblog forwarding volume is obtained(Fig.2).This study analyzes Fig.2 based on the division of China’s fight against COVID-19 in “China Action Against COVID-19” issued by the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China.China’s anti-epidemic course includes the following.Phase 1 is from 27,Dec.2019 to 19,Jan.2020.Phase 2 is from 20,Jan.2020 to 20,Feb.2020.Phase 3 is from 21,Feb.2020 to 17,Mar.2020.Phase 4 is from 18,Mar.2020 to 28,Apr.2020.Phase 5 is from 29,Apr.2020 to 31,May 2020.

Fig.2 Comparison chart of the trend of government media and non-governmental media microblog forwarding volume

A microblog forwarding volume is positively correlated with its influence.It means the more the forwarding volume of a microblog,the greater the influence it is[9].Since the microblog accounts selected in this article are all official microblogs,the malicious phenomenon of the amount of forwarding by the paid forum posters can be ruled out.Fig.2 shows that from January 1 to June 15,the forwarding volume of government media on microblogs was higher than that of non-government media,proving that the influence of government media was greater than that of non-government media on the COVID-19.This study selects 10 government media microblogs forwarding peaks,to screen out 18 microblog posts,which exceed 10 000 forwarding volume (Table 1).This study analyzes the above-mentioned 18 blog posts from the perspective of release time.

According to the “China’s Action Against the COVID-19”,the course of the fight is divided,and the microblog posts in Table 1 are classified based on the release time.After categorization,it is found that the blog posts with high forwarding volume in government media microblogs are mainly concentrated in phase two (7) and phase four (8).Phase three (2) and phase five (1) have small volume,and phase one has fewer blog posts.Combining the development status of the COVID-19 at various stages with the classification results,the following conclusions are drawn.In the whole process of the occurrence and development of the COVID-19,the public pays more attention to the government media,that is,the government media has a greater influence,especially during the rapid outbreak of the COVID-19 (phase 2).But in the early stage of the COVID-19 (phase 1),the period of remission (phase 3) and the period of normalization of COVID-19 prevention and control (phase 5),the public pays less attention to government media.Phase 4 coincides with the Tomb Sweeping Day,so the blog posts about the mourning activity of the COVID-19 attracted people’s attention.

3.2 Post trend analysis

By sorting out the time and blog volume posted by government media and non-government media on microblogs,a comparison chart of the trend of posts is obtained (Fig.3).This study analyzes Fig.3 based on the division of China’s fight against the COVID-19 in “China’s Action Against the COVID-19” issued by the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China.

Fig.3 Comparison chart of the trend of microblog posts from the government media and non-government media

In the face of major emergencies,if the government can issue relevant information first,it can grasp the right to speak more objectively and avoid false information misleading the public[10].This study compares the release time of microblog posts of the same content between government media and nongovernment media to explore the advantages and disadvantages of the two in master discourse power in public health emergencies.This article selects the news events listed in each stage of the “China’s Action Against the COVID-19” as the objects for comparing the release time.The comparison results are as follows.

Phase 1:Government media quickly responded to the outbreak.In the first stage,the microblog volume posted by the government media and nongovernmental media is the same.But by comparing the microblog release time about the COVID-19,it can be found that the release time from government media microblogs is earlier than the non-governmental media at this stage.For example,on January 9,the expert team initially determined that the pathogen of viral pneumonia of unknown cause was novel coronavirus,and the government media reported it 18 minutes earlier than non-government media.On January 11,experts interpreted the COVID-19,and the government media reported it one minute earlier than the non-government media.On January 19,the National Health Commission sent a working group and an expert group to Wuhan.The government media reported it 19 minutes earlier than the non-government media.

Phase 2:Initially curbing the spread of the COVID-19.In the second stage,the blog volume posted by the non-government media is much more than that by the government media.But both of them have an upwards-downwards-upwards trend of posts release.During this period,the number of new confirmed cases,deaths cases,and cumulative confirmed cases of China’s COVID-19 in a single day all peaked[6].Comparing these microblog posts about the COVID-19,it can be found that the release time of the government media is earlier than that of the nongovernment media.

The release time of the government media on other matters is earlier than the non-government media.On January 23,Wuhan closed all departure routes,and the government media reported it one day earlier than the non-government media.On January 25,the Hubei medical team of the People’s Liberation Army arrived in Wuhan,which was reported by the government media 4 hours earlier than the nongovernment media.

Phase 3:The number of new local cases gradually drops to single digits.During the early stage,the number of posts posted by the government media on microblog is the same as that of the nongovernment media,and during the late stage,the number of posts on microblogs by government media is slightly higher than that of the non-government media.In this period,the bad epidemic situation in Hubei Province and Wuhan City is contained.The situation of the pandemic in China is generally stable except Hubei Province.In mid-March,the daily new cases were controlled within single digits,and important progress was made in epidemic prevention and control[6].Comparing the government media and the non-government media’s microblog release time about the COVID-19,it can be found that the government media at this stage is later than that of the non-government media.

The release time of non-government media is earlier than the government media.On February 24,the China-WHO Joint Expert Investigation Team for COVID-19 held a press conference in Beijing,and the non-governmental media reported it 7 minutes earlier than the government media.On March 11,the number of nationwide new confirmed cases fell to single digits,and the non-governmental media reported it 6 minutes earlier than the government media.

Phase 4:Achieving decisive results in epidemic prevention in Wuhan and Hubei.In the fourth stage,the number of microblogs posted by the government media and non-government media has an overall downward trend.The number of posts by the government media on microblogs is higher than that by non-government media in the early stage,and the number of posts by non-government media on microblogs increases rapidly in the later period of this stage.During this period,the spread of the COVID-19 across the country is stopped,the control measures for the Wuhan and Hubei departure passage are lifted,and the number of patients with COVID-19 in the hospitals in Wuhan is zero.Comparing the government media and the non-government media’s release time about the COVID-19,we can find that the government media’s release time is earlier than the non-government media at this stage.Besides,the government media report some issues while the nongovernment media do not.

The release time of the posts from the government media is earlier than the non-government media.On April 7,the control measures for the Wuhan departure passage were lifted,and the government media reported it one day earlier than the non-government media.On April 26,patients with COVID-19 in the hospitals in Wuhan were zero,and the government media reported it 3 minutes earlier than the non-government media.The government media reported some issues but the non-government media did not.On March 25,Hubei Province removed the control measures for the departure passage from Wuhan.

Phase 5:National epidemic prevention and control becoming normal.In the fifth stage,the volume posted by the non-government media on microblog is much more than that of the government media.During this period,the domestic epidemic situation is generally sporadic,with clustered cases in some areas,and the imported cases from abroad are basically under control.Therefore,the national epidemic prevention and control became normal[6].Comparing the government media and the nongovernment media’s microblog release time on the COVID-19,we can find that at this stage,both the government media and the non-government media have a phenomenon.It means one party reports the issues but the other does not.And the government media’s microblog release time is later than the nongovernment media.

The government media posts some issues but the non-government media does not.On May 2,the emergency response level for public health emergencies in Hubei Province is lowered.The nongovernment media post this news but the government media does not.On April 30,the emergency response level for public health emergencies in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is lowered.The release time of this post from the non-government media is earlier than the government media.On May 7,the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism issued the “Guiding Opinions on Normalizing the Prevention and Control of the COVID-19”,which was reported by the non-governmental media 3 hours earlier than the government media.

4 Data analysis results

Through analyzing the data of 6 microblog accounts from January 1st to June 15th,the following results are drawn.First,according to the analysis of microblog forwarding volume,it is found that the government media has a greater influence on the public during the COVID-19.Secondly,according to the analysis of microblog release time,it is found the government media’s microblog release time is not always earlier than that of the non-government media.Besides,there is a phenomenon that the government media reports some issues but the non-government media does not.

In summary,the following conclusions are obtained.In public health emergencies,the government media has greater influence on the public,which is conducive to government departments’response to online public opinion.But in terms of master discourse power in public health emergencies,the government media still needs to improve.

5 Suggestions for guiding online public opinion

Based on the analysis of microblog data,this article proposes the following recommendations for government departments to enhance their ability to guide online public opinion on health emergencies.

5.1 Releasing information in a timely manner to guide the trend of public opinion

Public emergencies are uncertain and closely related to the interests of the public.Once an emergency occurs,the public wants to obtain relevant information as soon as possible.The speed of information dissemination in the Internet age is extremely fast,but some online information is not true.The public is easy to be misled by the false news,causing unnecessary panic.It is not good for the government to deal with public emergencies[11].

By comparing the release time of government media and non-government media on microblogs,it is found that government media’s microblog release time is not always earlier than that of non-government media on the COVID-19.Sometimes,the government media reports some issues,but the non-government media does not.Therefore,government departments should respond quickly once the incident occurs.It should reasonably use the agenda-setting theory to report the accurate information,with openness and transparency,guiding public opinion.When major public health emergencies occur,it is necessary to respond to online public opinions by releasing authoritative information within 5 hours to ensure that there is no loss of voice from the government[12].

5.2 Cultivating opinion leaders to guide public attention

In some emergencies,when the official media cannot report the issues on time,netizens are accustomed to opening the microblogs of influential bloggers,looking for interpretation,analysis and criticism from them[3].

The information in Table 1 shows that the forwarding volume of microblog posts from Academician Zhong Nanshan,the leader of the expert group of the National Health Commission,is high,confirming the public’s high attention to opinion leaders.Therefore,government departments should actively encourage opinion leaders to integrate network resources and release information properly,which can improve news timeliness and expand government influence[4].

5.3 Reporting the facts to avoid public misunderstandings

Government media reporting on public health emergencies must follow news writing rules,actively focusing on sensitive issues and major events.Once the government media reports on public health emergencies are standardized and institutionalized.It can ensure the public’s right to know these emergencies on time[11].

First of all,the government media should arrange for special personnel to follow up information on public health emergencies announced by government departments in a timely manner,and report the progress of the emergencies objectively.Based on the accuracy of the incident report,easyto-understand language and methods should be used.Secondly,the government media should establish an assessment system for reporting public health emergencies,incorporating incident reports into individual work goals,and conducting regular assessments to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of incident reports.