Dissemination Mechanism Of Wildlife Utilization-Related Information On Microblog And Its Social Impacts

Relevant information on wildlife utilization is widely disseminated on social media,and public opinion is increasingly influencing the formulation of wildlife protection and utilization policies.It is of great significance to study the communication mechanism of this information and its influence on public attitude so as to regulate and manage the communication channels and contents of relevant information and promote the sustainable development of wildlife.Based on Laswell's "5W" classic communication mode,in this study,we used case analysis and content analysis to analyze the communication mechanism of relevant information on wildlife utilization with relatively large influence disseminated via microblog;we carried out questionnaire survey to investigate the attitude of the Chinese public towards the information on wildlife utilization;taking several seriously threatened species as examples,we also applied the comparative analysis method to explore the potential correlation and influence of relevant information on illegal trade by comparing the trend of the amount of relevant information on utilization of specific species,and the trend of smuggling and poaching of such species at the same time.The conclusions are as follows:1.More than 70%of the most influential wildlife utilization-related microblogs were published by animal protection NGOs and official accounts of news media;The content of the communication is mainly to prohibit illegal use and to propose to stop the use of wildlife,with various forms of expression.The propagation depth of a single sample microblog reached 9 layers,and the exposure was 80.36 million.The top ten key propagation accounts triggered 1371 reposts,accounting for 72.3%of the total reposts.The sentiment value of users participating in forwarding is 84.2.The respondents' awareness of information against excessive use and illegal use is 87.60%,and their recognition is 4.5 points.The awareness and recognition of the information about the over-use of stimulus were 17.16%and 2.59,respectively.The degree of awareness and recognition of the unsupported use of the information is higher than that of the reasonable use of the information.The average awareness and recognition of wildlife related information about COVID-19 were 73.65%and 4.23 respectively.3.There was a significant positive correlation between the trend of African elephant poaching quantity and the trend of ivory trade information quantity in China from 2005 to 2018(P=0.006).The number of information trends of illegal trade of tiger products and the number of smuggling cases of tiger products in China both peaked in 2010.Misleading information about the totoaba swim bladder market in the Gulf of California was widely disseminated in 2017-2018,and seizures of totoaba swim bladder in the Gulf of California increased 16-fold in weight compared to 2017.Based on the above results,the transmission mechanism and influence effect of wildlife utilization of relevant information are discussed,and the following conclusions are drawn:1.The communication mechanism of Relevant Information on Wildlife Utilization:The audience has a high degree of trust in the official accounts of news media and animal protection NGOs;There is a phenomenon of group polarization in the microblog content of wildlife using relevant information.The forwarding of opinion leaders can lead to explosive secondary forwarding;Wild animal related issues can easily trigger the emotional identity of the public,so that the public has a strong willingness to spread.2.The influence effect of information related to wildlife utilization:the public has clear opposition to illegal wildlife utilization activities,and can calmly judge the advertisements that exaggerate the efficacy of wildlife drugs and health care products.Most public attitudes toward wildlife conservation lean toward absolute conservation.Information such as the high demand and high price of a certain type of wildlife or its products in a certain market is likely to stimulate the profit-seeking mentality of some members of the public and intensify the illegal hunting and trade.