"One operation is as fierce as a tiger, and a look at the traffic is fifty-five", the government affairs account has fallen into operational difficulties, and there has been a centralized "shutdown tide" of government affairs new media accounts in many places recently.
Around May Day this year, a number of grassroots government WeChat public accounts and microblogs in Changsha, Xi'an, Nanjing and other places have stopped updating and started the cancellation procedure. In addition, the news of the suspension of the official accounts of a large number of grassroots departments and schools in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, has also appeared in the newspapers several months ago. Was this a spur-of-the-moment move, or was it a rehearsal? Can shutting down the "government account" prevent "fingertip formalism"?
Today, Niu invited Ma Liming, associate professor of the School of Journalism and Communication of Jinan University, and Li Xiaohong, deputy editor-in-chief of the Shaanxi Learning Platform and deputy editor-in-chief of the Western Network, to discuss whether new media for government affairs should pursue traffic. In the face of the "shutdown tide", what is the future development direction of new media for government affairs?
There are traces of the "shutdown tide".
According to the 53rd Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of December 2023, there are 146638 microblogs of government agencies certified by the Sina platform.
Funny painting style, Divine Comedy assist...... Some time ago, some government affairs accounts changed the style of serious preaching and one-way output in the past, and made the public feel new with a new model of "playing stalks" and funny. Why are there now mass shutdowns?
"From the initial mushrooms to today's increasingly difficult ones, they are all part of the development process." Li Xiaohong, deputy editor-in-chief of Shaanxi Learning Platform and deputy editor-in-chief of Western Network, said that in the early stage, with the joint blessing of the Internet environment, user thinking, effect orientation and other concepts, government affairs accounts gradually emerged.
In recent years, some government accounts have undergone a growth process and played a certain positive role in communication and guidance. "In the face of the phenomenon of the government account being shut down, we might as well look at it with a normal heart. It is easy to open an account, but it is difficult to operate and maintain, which is the rule of the market and the choice of the times. Li Xiaohong said.
Why the trouble?
There has been a concentrated "shutdown tide" of government new media accounts in many places across the country, why is the prosperous government affairs new media in the past no longer the scenery?
1. Falling into the "fingertip formalism" of "you can have it"
"One operation is as fierce as a tiger, and the traffic is fifty-five", the content is empty and boring, no one reads it, and the homogenization is serious, which is a common problem of some government accounts.
A closer look at the content posted by these closed accounts shows traces of "updating for the sake of updating". In order to ensure the amount of updates and the frequency of release, content "water injection" has become the norm for some government new media accounts.
Some media commented that the construction of new media accounts for government affairs, only looking at whether there is one, not whether it can be used or not, is undoubtedly "formalism at the fingertips".
In December 2023, the Central Cyber Security and Information Commission issued the "Several Opinions on the Prevention and Control of "Formalism on the Fingertips", which pointed out that "formalism at the fingertips" is a mutation and renovation of formalism in the context of digitalization, and it is also the main manifestation of increasing the burden on the grassroots.
2. The "Zombie" only has a sense of breath but no sense of vitality
In May 2023, the Digital China Development Report (2022) released by the Cyberspace Administration of China showed that the number of new media for government affairs has grown to 110,000. Among them, there are not only a number of high-quality head accounts with strong guidance, but also some "zombie sleep accounts" that lack operation and maintenance care.
For example, if you use "town people's government" as the keyword to search for users on a short video platform, the search results that appear on the mobile phone screen are nearly 100 pages long. Among them, many short video accounts of township governments have never published any works, and the latest news after the opening of some township government short video accounts is still a year ago.
As Li Xiaohong said, how can an account that only has a "sense of breathing" and lacks a "sense of vitality" last?
Ma Liming also said that the financial media has sunk to the streets, and the government affairs team has become very complex. In addition, the time and energy of grassroots staff are already limited, and for some workers who are not from media-related majors, maintaining these "zombie numbers" has virtually become a burden. At the same time, if the masses want to obtain information services, they need to pay attention to a large number of accounts first, is it really convenient and beneficial to the people?
A new media account for government affairs that deviates from the original intention of setting up can neither serve the public nor add points to the credibility of the government.
How to "lose weight" healthily?
The "slimming and speeding up" of the government account should not only do the "subtraction" in quantity, but also the "addition" in content and service.
Shutdown should also provide "after-sales" services, that is, actively and repeatedly publicize over a period of time, where are the new channels for business handling or information acquisition. Li Xiaohong emphasized that the shutdown of the government account is not the end, the "after-sales" cannot be stopped, and the pace of serving the people cannot be stopped.
In Ma Liming's view, the communication between the government and the people is an inherent requirement of social civilization, and the people should be called for and the government should respond. In the future, we should be realistic and pragmatic in the process of communicating with the people, and take meeting the demands of people's livelihood as the first priority.
For the future development of new media for government affairs, Li Xiaohong gave the following suggestions: the integrated business is the direction of the future, in the ocean of information, we do not need a number of small sampans, for the people, reducing the cost of search, but also the ultimate practice of user thinking and optimizing the sense of experience.
Source: Ku Ding Xie News Author: Yin Peiyao Wei Yuan