Yuxuan Zhao
Social Media and Social Issues in China
In the 21st century society, social media has become an important platform for people to learn real-time information and socialize.The proper use of social media can effectively help alleviate the information asymmetry between the government and people, thus enabling citizens to better monitor the government’s management and seek assistance during urgency more effectively.
The bulks of information that the government and people received varies since the government would be more likely to receive first-hand information. In facing the urgency of pandemic crises that will be widely spread in 2020 in China, the government reported covid cases every day through social media such as Weibo,TikTok, etc. [1] Another essential role social media played during the crisis is to enable people to seek help. At the beginning of the COVID-19 spreading in China, many suspected cases were hard to get treatments immediately due to the limits on doctors and beds for patients. Therefore, thousands of people reported their risky situations online at the beginning of February,2020, when the Covid-19 first spread widely.[2] On the Chinese social networking site Weibo, Chinese citizens who were worried about their suspected cases but could not get hospitalized in time have been seeking help on Weibo since the end of January, with about 1,055 requests for help by February 20. According to the research,it took 10.4 days for each patient to go from self-awareness of the disease to seeking help on Twitter after some treatment on average. The average intervals of time between asking for help online and getting assistance is around 2.79 days[2].
Besides the important role social media plays in facing the pandemic, it also showed importance as a reliable communication tool in other social problems. Around January 27, 2022, a video was widely spread on Chinese social media. In this short video, a middle-age woman with a thin coat was chained by heavy chains to her neck. She had 8 kids with the man who chained her. The video quickly drew the attention of the community. People were so annoyed due to the ridiculous restriction of the woman’s personal freedom that they started fierce discussion online and sent requests to the local government to ask them to seriously investigate it. On February 7th, 2022, the local government reported their investigation and actions about it on social media. The chained woman in the video was rescued and had doctors to check her wellness. Later, the local government reports to public that the Dong ,Sang ,Zhong (who were involved in this illegal confinement of women) were suspected of trafficking in women, the above three people have been taken criminal compulsory measures.Without the scrutiny of social media, this illegal imprisonment of women might not have been solved.
[1] Li, Y., Chandra, Y., & Kapucu, N. (2020, July 15). Crisis coordination and the role of social … – sage journals. Sage Journals. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0275074020942105
[2]从求助到获助，微博肺炎求助者等了多久？. 澎湃新闻. (2020, February 26). Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_6166879
