Network Control, Of Public Opinion In Public Crises

The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 has leaded the public attention to information release and the response of emergent public affairs, namely its decision making mechanism. With the rapid development of internet, such vehicles as cyberforum, blog, have been playing more and more important role. The network opinions act like a double-edged sword pushing us to take effective regulating measures to properly settle these issues by minimizing negative effects and maximizing the positive one. Different from traditional public opinions, it demands soft regulation functions as the main and hard regulation as complementary to ensure the transparency of information release on Emergencies, and to set up a highly efficient management and publicity mechanism. The adjustment of ideas in the decision making process and the perfection of related rules and regulations may be of help to improve government images, and the resolution of emergencies.