How to see the network communication and public opinion monitoring?

Especially in the 21st century, when the network communication has more and more influence on human life, when we can see both the White House and Zhongnanhai on the Internet ......, the time is ripe to observe and think about network politics.

I. Awareness of Public Opinion and Public Opinion Supervision

Public opinion is the ****same opinion of the majority of the people in a society or social group on a controversial issue that has occurred in the recent past and is of general concern to the people. ①Public opinion monitoring is connected with public opinion as a whole and inseparable. It reflects not an individual's perception of social reality, but the general, ****same opinion of a certain social group (the public) on social reality. Public opinion monitoring, with the help of the communication advantages of the news media, reflects in an open way the relatively unanimous opinion formed by the public on a certain social phenomenon, a certain social event or a social problem. In fact, it is on behalf of the will of the public to make a strong active response to social reality, and therefore in the implementation of social supervision has a strong influence and authority.

②The function of public opinion monitoring is multi-faceted: monitoring the social environment, adjusting the social mentality and social opinions, and controlling, checking and balancing the society and so on. In China, public opinion supervision is an important part of the Party's news propaganda work, a sharp weapon to help the Party committee and the government to improve their work and solve problems, and an important means to improve the combat power and influence of news propaganda. News media and public opinion supervision of the relationship is very close, the traditional media has become an important tool for public opinion supervision, in the network is gradually favored by the modern society, public opinion supervision through the network has become a new focus of public opinion supervision, especially the network of political attention.

Two, the current situation of network politics--characteristics and problems

Before the rise of the Internet, newspapers, radio, television and other traditional media as the mouthpiece of the party and the government, in the supervision of public opinion has a very important role; in the wake of the rise of the Internet, the network has also joined the ranks of the supervision of public opinion and the Internet is increasingly showing its important position. day by day shows its important position.

Network politics emphasizes a social control function of public opinion supervision, social checks and balances. It should be mainly by means of public opinion, publicity and education to influence and guide the public's values and behavior, and to prevent and stop social transgressions. To a certain extent it is beneficial. At the same time, it should be clear that this kind of control is not coercive, it is mainly through spiritual introspection, value recognition, moral probation to achieve the purpose of control.

Unlike the traditional media in the political aspects of public opinion monitoring, the use of the Internet for political aspects of public opinion monitoring has its new characteristics.

Traditional media in the release of news, guide public opinion, monitoring society is difficult to get the audience's direct feedback, and even if you get direct feedback in the timeliness is relatively poor. Simply put, the right to speak is mainly controlled by one party, while the other party is very passive, and it is difficult to fully enjoy the right to speak; at the same time, the party controlling the right to speak is also very difficult to know exactly how the audience reacts to the news and the effect of public opinion after the news is released. It is difficult to form an interaction between the two parties.

The interactive character of the network provides great convenience for the network to disseminate news and supervise public opinion, especially in the network politics. The network makes the ordinary audience has the right to speak, they can through the network to publish about the government, government officials, opinions and suggestions, at the same time, the release of information can also be more direct access to these feedback information, timely understanding of the psychological state of the audience, for the improvement of the policy and formulation of the basis for the network can report on the politics of the network and the news related to it in time, so that the broadest possible range of audience in the fastest possible speed to understand the political and It allows the widest possible audience to understand and react to politics as quickly as possible. In a way, it is more conducive to social control.

This actually plays a two-fold function of public opinion monitoring. On the one hand, the Internet facilitates ordinary people's monitoring of government behavior or government officials, a feature that is particularly prominent compared with traditional media, with online forums and the like becoming the sounding board for ordinary audiences. As ordinary people began to enjoy the right to speak, the original controllers of the right to speak encountered unprecedented challenges in unifying their voices. Take Clinton's sex scandal case as an example, the editorial board of the American Newsweek pulled the story down when it was about to be released, while the Drudge Report, a one-man website opened by a young man, publicized the explosive news, which caused a sensation at the time sufficient to bear witness to the power of online public opinion monitoring. On the other hand, the government can more quickly and directly understand the state of the general audience (the public, the people) through the network, public opinion guidance and supervision is also more convenient. In China, the Sun Zhigang incident, which just happened recently, caused a major reaction on the Internet, and eventually the government revised the relevant policies according to the people's feedback, which also shows the influence of the people's will on the political life through the Internet, and at the same time reflects a kind of regulation of the society by the Internet politics, where the interactivity of the Internet is embodied to the fullest.

As a matter of fact, government networks in different countries serve their own political interests. Take the United States as an example, in 1998, the United States bombed our embassy in Yugoslavia, which was obviously a blatant violation, but the western media, including the network, carefully selected the facts and disclosed the so-called truth to the American people, and this kind of disinformation is in fact intentionally shaping the American people's understanding of the incident, in short, the U.S. government is making use of the power of discourse in its hands to influence and mislead the American people, and is ideologically shaping the American public. In short, the U.S. government is using its power of discourse to influence and mislead the American people, and is controlling the entire population ideologically. In China, however, the Chinese government stands on the position of the party and the people and releases factual news through the Internet, with the aim of enabling the Chinese people to understand the government's policies and the truth of news events in a timely manner ...... so that they can be more actively involved in the construction of the society.

When "online office", "online government" and "e-government" become increasingly possible, "open government" will also become possible.

When "online office", "online government" and "e-government" become more and more possible, "open government" also becomes possible. Citizens' right to know is greatly guaranteed, and they can also enjoy a part of the right to speak directly, and they can learn about the reliable government information through the relevant websites directly, and then the role of the government begins to have the nature of the service slowly - the service of providing citizens with information in a timely manner. This is when the role of government begins to take on the nature of a service - a service that provides timely information to citizens. Of course, this kind of information service is positional and selective, as the example of the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy mentioned above illustrates. At the same time, the government can more easily get feedback information from the audience from the relevant part of the website, which is very important from the point of view of communication science, because the feedback back to the information has gone through fewer intermediate links, so the information is less lost, the reliability is strong, the government can accurately grasp the audience's overall ideas (consciousness), providing the possibility of its scientific guidance and supervision.

While seeing that the Internet has brought efficiency and convenience to political life, it should also be clear that the Internet has also brought some problems to political life.

Because the Internet provides a very effective technical means for the expression of public opinion and public participation, especially in some cases, an ordinary citizen can talk directly with government officials, so there are more and more different voices from the people, so the government enjoys the convenience of the Internet at the same time, but also facing the embarrassment of more and more difficult to unify the voices (in different situations, unification of voices is sometimes a good thing, and sometimes not). voice is sometimes good, sometimes not). This requires the government to be more scientific in guiding public opinion, otherwise it will be difficult for the public to consciously agree with the government's behavior and to enhance the government's prestige. But for a government responsible to the public, this is not a difficult problem to solve.

In addition to this, the Internet also provides a technical means for some political rumors. Those who publish rumors slander, libel and defame the government, its officials or its policies for different purposes, and if the ordinary audience cannot analyze the situation soberly, then they are very easily misled and may even behave in an extreme way, which directly affects the normal political life of a country, and may even affect the stability of the country.

What's more, there are more and more groups with their own organizations established through the Internet nowadays, of course, most of them are healthy and normal, they may be the organizations of philatelic enthusiasts, they may be the organizations of book-lovers ...... but we can't ignore that some of them may be established through the Internet! Illegal organizations that go against government regulations, such as marketing organizations. It is difficult for the government to know and control the information of these groups, but it is significant for the guidance and supervision of public opinion if we can know the information in this aspect in time, especially to break the veil of the undesirable elements in time.

Three, the future of network politics

With the role of the network in political life is becoming more and more important, especially in the supervision of public opinion is increasingly playing a pivotal role, public opinion organizers want to better play the advantages of the network position, it is necessary to improve the network of public opinion supervision of the ways and means.

First, when monitoring public opinion through the Internet, it is necessary to change a kind of mentality - only according to their own wishes to release news and information, without considering the reaction of ordinary people in society. This kind of mentality, which is born in the use of traditional media for public opinion monitoring, is related to a certain extent to the relatively narrow scope of the enjoyment of the right to speak, while the interactivity of the network requires that the party in active control of the society must actively organize public opinion, and at the same time, establish a mechanism for scientifically accepting the feedback, analyze the feedback in a timely manner, and promptly respond to the feedback information. Simply put, it means that the social controllers should pay more attention to the quality and efficiency when facing the political work on the network, and improve the enthusiasm of public opinion supervision.

Secondly, in order to eliminate the influence of network rumors and other rumors on healthy network politics, on the one hand, it is necessary for healthy voices to keep reminding and admonishing the public - what is right and what is wrong, and to strengthen the public's awareness of the correctness of the situation, in which the strict requirements for the moderators is one of the methods; on the other hand, it is also necessary to go to the improvement of the network communication On the other hand, it is also necessary to improve the network communication technology, so that rumors that are not conducive to public health and correct judgment have no hiding place, and deprive them of the right to speak. The same approach is also needed for illegal organizations that use the Internet to develop.

Thirdly, for China, the use of the Internet for public opinion monitoring can draw on some of the ideas in "The Art of Speaking Up for Yourself" (3). Public opinion monitoring through the Internet must adhere to the basic line of the primary stage of socialism, and under this premise, it should be conducive to social consultation and dialog. The network makes it possible for the public opinion organizer and the target to carry out social consultation and dialogue, communicate with each other, and understand each other; so when the conditions permit, the two sides will become the protagonists of public opinion supervision by reaching an agreement through dialogue. Simply put, the emphasis is on a kind of channeling, rather than blocking.