A Study On International Communication Effect Of Chinese Local Government After “8·12” Tianjin Port Blast Accident

Globalization and new media bring nowadays international communication more challenges.Crisis are wide spread on the Internet and go over the world.Under this circumstance,as authorities,Chinese local governments are required to improve ability on international communication to achieve favorable effects.On 2015 August 12,a devastated explosion caused by dangerous cargo swept Tianjin,one of the biggest port in China.Tianjin municipal government has unprecedentedly held 14 press releases among successive 10 days after the blast.165 people dead,8 missing in the accident.The crisis caused about 7 billion economic losses.This crisis also can be seen as scandal,for some officials of Tianjin municipal government were fired due to power abuse.The drama has caught many eyes from international media,both social and traditional media.This paper aims at the effect of Chinese government's international communication after crisis happened,by analyzing text of press release,mainstream international newspaper and social media.The paper focuses on communication deficiency when Chinese local government facing such a big disaster,and studies the reasons and make some suggestion.The result is that,when crisis happen,press release can set agenda for international media.However,the effect is unobvious on social media.However,if news release could not satisfy public and media need,and information is not transparent,the agenda setting effect will be weakened.Furthermore,government will lose voice,international communication effect goes to another side.We found that Tianjin government did not well in international communication.On one side,by study citing frequency of news sources from traditional and social media,Tianjin local government indeed acted as the dominant role.On the other side,Tianjin government's performance disappointed international media,and resulted in some negative reports.Reasons for the inconformity are as follows:Firstly,some news release conferences are not in time.Key charger for the explosion showed much later than media expectation.Secondly,attitude of spokesmen is not clear as well.Thirdly,the information transparence should be improved.Lastly,authority is short of credibility and pre-set.The reasons root in the government function,external environment,news release conference system and media.To reinforce the communication effect,news release system should be completed,information published should be quick and transparent.On the other side,government ought to make good use of new media,and develop communication conception.