The Spread Of Micro-blogging And Public Opinion Guidance In Emergencies

In the social transformation period, a host of unexpected events have frequently occurred in China, for various relatively concentrated social contradictions. Prior to the emergence of Internet, the main media of information is television, newspapers, radio and magazines, often referred to as the four traditional media; however, the development of new technology and new media makes the four traditional media no longer the exclusive protagonist in the report of unexpected events. Besides, Weibo, a representative of new media, has also risen to prominence by virtue of its unique technical advantages. With the explosion of information, a mounting number of public emergencies have followed into the spotlight. Accordingly, one of the most important realistic subjects is how to treat Weibo communication as well as how to correctly guide the public opinion in the information dissemination of unexpected events.Taking Weibo communication and public opinion in unexpected events as the study object, this paper applies relevant communication theories and Steven Fink's theory on crisis communication and management to implement relative research, based on typical cases. In the first part, the paper combs out the developments of Weibo in general. The second part is focused on the characteristics and roles of Weibo communication from the viewpoint of unexpected events. The third, combined with Steven Fink's stage theory of crisis, is to make a thorough analysis of “7.23 Yong-Wen line major transportation accident”. Finally, the paper sums up some deficiencies and constraints of Weibo communication in the dissemination of unexpected events, in addition, puts forward several thoughtful suggestion from the perspective of government, operators and users of Weibo.