Abstract
Information release is a key to the macro-economy during the outbreak of the Coronavirus Diosease-2019 (COVID-19). To explore the relationship between information supply by the government and public information demand in the pandemic, this study collected over 4,000 posts published on the most popular social media platform, i.e., WeChat. Many approaches, such as text mining, are employed to explore the information at different stages during the pandemic. According to the results, the government attached great importance to the information related to the pandemic. The main topics of information released by the government included the latest situation of the pandemic, announcements by the State Council, and prevention policies for COVID-19. Information mismatch between the public and Chinese governments contributed to the economic depression caused by the pandemic. Specifically, the topics of “the latest situation” and “popular scientific knowledge regarding the pandemic” have gained the most attention of the public. The information demand of the public has changed from the pandemic itself to the recovery of social life and industrial activities after the authority announced the control of the pandemic. However, during the recession phase, the information demand has shifted to asymptomatic infections and global pandemic trends. By contrast, some of the main topics provided by the government, such as “How beautiful you are,” were excessive because the public demand is insufficient. Therefore, severe mismatches existed between information release of the government and public information demand during the pandemic, which impeded the recovery of the economy. The results in this study provide strategical suggestions of information release and opinion guidance for the authorities.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the COVID-19 outbreak has constituted a global “pandemic.” China will report its experience to the world
Period, which reflected the great importance the Chinese government attached to the COVID-19 prevention and control work
In terms of the number of information supply, the average number of posts released by the government WeChat official account “Health China” was about 30 every day, far more than the average 2–3 posts during the non-pandemic period
Summary
Public emergencies are of extreme destruction and highly uncertainty, which could seriously endanger people’s health, safety, and social activities. The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease2019 (COVID-19) has caused more than 26 million infections and 5,000,000 deaths as of December 1, 2021 reported to WHO [1]. It continues to spread around the world. With the engagement of social media tools, rumors regarding the pandemic could spread earlier, faster, and wider than that in a traditional manner. It could cause public panic which raises challenges for the governments to carry out pandemic prevention and crisis management [5, 6]. Timely and accurate information release is crucial to maintain social stability during the outbreak of COVID-19 [7–11]
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