Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery Department, Affiliated Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 Feb 10;9:829589. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.829589. eCollection 2021.
Information release is a key to the macro-economy during the outbreak of the Coronavirus Diosease-2019 (COVID-19). To explore the relationship between information supply by the government and public information demand in the pandemic, this study collected over 4,000 posts published on the most popular social media platform, i.e., WeChat. Many approaches, such as text mining, are employed to explore the information at different stages during the pandemic. According to the results, the government attached great importance to the information related to the pandemic. The main topics of information released by the government included the latest situation of the pandemic, announcements by the State Council, and prevention policies for COVID-19. Information mismatch between the public and Chinese governments contributed to the economic depression caused by the pandemic. Specifically, the topics of "the latest situation" and "popular scientific knowledge regarding the pandemic" have gained the most attention of the public. The information demand of the public has changed from the pandemic itself to the recovery of social life and industrial activities after the authority announced the control of the pandemic. However, during the recession phase, the information demand has shifted to asymptomatic infections and global pandemic trends. By contrast, some of the main topics provided by the government, such as "How beautiful you are," were excessive because the public demand is insufficient. Therefore, severe mismatches existed between information release of the government and public information demand during the pandemic, which impeded the recovery of the economy. The results in this study provide strategical suggestions of information release and opinion guidance for the authorities.
信息发布是 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）疫情期间宏观经济的关键。为了探索政府信息供应与疫情期间公众信息需求之间的关系，本研究在最受欢迎的社交媒体平台微信上收集了超过 4000 条帖子。采用了许多方法，如文本挖掘，来探索疫情不同阶段的信息。根据研究结果，政府非常重视与疫情相关的信息。政府发布的信息主要包括疫情的最新情况、国务院的公告和 COVID-19 的预防政策。公众和中国政府之间的信息不匹配导致了疫情引发的经济萧条。具体来说，“最新情况”和“疫情科普”这两个主题最受公众关注。公众的信息需求已经从疫情本身转变为权威宣布控制疫情后社会生活和工业活动的恢复。然而，在衰退阶段，信息需求已经转向无症状感染和全球疫情趋势。相比之下，政府提供的一些主要主题，如“你真美”，因为公众需求不足而显得过多。因此，疫情期间政府的信息发布与公众的信息需求之间存在严重的不匹配，阻碍了经济的复苏。本研究的结果为当局提供了信息发布的策略建议和舆论指导。
