群体舆论和政府沟通对网络用户舆论极化的影响

The Influence of Public Opinion and Government Communication on Opinion and Argument Polarization of Internet Users

随着社交媒体的广泛使用,人们可以方便地在社交平台上发表自己的意见。受网络上的观点和情绪刺激,网络用户的立场和观点经常呈现出极端化的倾向,为网络舆情治理带来挑战。从群体舆论和政府沟通的角度,探讨网络用户舆论极化效应的影响机制。具体而言,借鉴刺激-有机体-反应(S-O-R)框架开发个理论模型,研究群体舆论环境和政府沟通风格如何引发网络用户对认同感、情绪和政府信任的感知,从而导致网络用户舆论极化效应的改变。通过情景实验的方式收集数据,验证模型和研究假设。研究结果表明,(1)群体舆论环境和网络用户本身观点一致正向影响其感知群体认同和感知群体情绪,表明环境刺激能够对个体产生影响。感知群体认同和感知群体情绪均使网络用户在被认同中更加极端化,加剧网络用户的舆论极化效应。(2)共情型的政府沟通风格比权威型的政府沟通风格更能提高网络用户对政府的信任,进而缓解网络用户的舆论极化效应。从政府沟通的角度为舆论极化提供了新的研究思路。(3)感知群体认同和感知群体情绪在影响舆论极化方面具有交互效应。感知群体情绪对舆论极化的效用随着感知群体认同的增加而增加。研究结论为理解网络用户舆论极化的成因和影响机制提供了理论支持,关注到舆论环境因素对网络用户的刺激,从政府沟通的视角研究了政府沟通风格如何缓解舆论极化现象。在实践层面,为社交媒体运营商和政府社交媒体有效改善网络舆论环境提供指导。建议社交媒体平台尊重并引导舆论观点的多样化传播,政府社交媒体在运营时应注重通知公告的语言风格,增强从积极方向引导社交媒体舆论传播的效能.

With the widespread use of social media,it is convenient for people to express their opinions on social platforms.Stimulated by options and emotions on the internet,the positions and views of internet users often show a tendency to be extreme,which brings challenges to the governance of online public opinion.From the perspective of public opinion and government communication,this study explores the influencing mechanism of opinion and argument polarization effect of internet users.Specifically,this study develops a theoretical model with reference to the stimulus-organism-response(S-O-R)framework to study how public opinion environment and government communication style(i.e.,stimulus)trigger internet users′perception of identity,emotion and government trust(i.e.,organism),thus leading to the change of opinion and argument polarization effect(i.e.,response)of internet users.The research data are collected by way of the scenario experiment to verify our proposed research model and hypotheses.The study finds that:first of all,the consistency of public opinion environment and internet users′own opinions positively affects internet users′perceived group identity and perceived group emotion,indicating that environmental stimuli can have an impact on individuals.Both perceived group identity and perceived group emotion will both make internet users more extreme in being identified,aggravating the polarization effect of internet users′public opinion.Secondly,our results confirm that the empathic government communication style can improve internet users′trust in the government more than the authoritative government communication style,which will alleviate the opinion and argument polarization effect of internet users.From the perspective of government communication,it provides a new research idea for the polarization of public opinion.Thirdly,we observe an interactive effect of perceived group identity and perceived group emotion on influencing the opinion and argument polarization.The utility of perceived group emotion on polarization increases with perceived group identity.This study provides theoretical support for understanding the causes and influencing mechanism of internet users′opinion and argument polarization,pays attention to the stimulation of public opinion environment factors on internet users,and studies how government communication style alleviates public opinion polarization from the perspective of government communication.At the practical level,this study can provide guidance for social media operators and government social media to effectively improve the online public opinion environment.We suggest that social media platforms respect and guide the diversified dissemination of public opinions,and government social media should pay attention to the language style of announcements during operation,so as to enhance the efficiency of guiding social media public opinion dissemination from a positive direction.