A Comparative Study Of Sino-Italian Online Political Communication

Since the birth of the Internet in the middle of the 20 th century,it has had a significant impact on human's lifestyles.So far,the widespread use of the Internet in countries around the world has caused a reshaping of the political communication.The communication mode of the mass media based on newspapers,radio,and television has been unable to meet the needs of the government and the public to express their views and participate in politics.The Internet political communication that uses the Internet as the medium has thus emerged.Online political communication refers to the process in which communication subjects(in this article specifically refer to the government and the public)carry out political information transmission,acquisition,and exchange through the Internet.The complete Internet political communication process includes four aspects:communication subjects,communication channel,communication content and communication effect.Among them,the communication subjects refer to the sender and receiver of information,the communication channel refers to the Internet,and the communication content refers to the government information and data disclosed on the Internet by the government to promote public dialogue.China-Italy political communication on the Internet is embodied in the egovernment construction and the interaction between the government and the public via the Internet,that is,two manifestations of “e-government” and “Internet interaction”.In terms of communication channels,online political communication channels include the government official websites and government social media accounts.China's government website is more complete than that of Italy,and it has better display and dialogue functions.Due to the needs of election activities,Italy's government social media were established earlier and developed rapidly;while China's government social media are gradually improving along with the development of video applications such as “Tik Tok”.In terms of communication content,the Chinese and Italian governments have achieved certain results in the disclosure of political information and data,but there is still a big gap between China and Italy in data openness.In terms of audience feedback,the Chinese people have a higher degree of trust in the government;compared with the Chinese people,the Italian people are more inclined to take a skeptical attitude towards the actions of the government,and they are also more confused about the prospects of online political communication.Although China has made some achievements in political communication on the Internet,and even has done better than Italy in some respects,there are still some problems.The Chinese government lags behind Italy in the three major aspects of data openness,readiness,execution,and influence;the imbalance of China's Internet development between urban and rural areas is serious,and the rural information gap is obvious;although the Chinese public has a higher degree of trust in the government than in Italy,its awareness and enthusiasm for political participation on the Internet is not as strong as the Italian public.Only by facing and solving these dilemmas can China's online political communication develop further.