The Study On Local Government Public Crisis Relations Under New Media Condition

At this stage,the rapid progress of information technology as well as the ongoingdevelopment and improvement of modern information technology,make the channelsof information dissemination prosperous,and speed of information dissemination fast.Any sudden public crisis events can be presented at the first time in the world throughthe media and the audience,who can also focus on the event and to express theirviews at the first time. This distinct mode of transmission also makes today’sgovernment crisis and the traditional public relations crisis show significantdifferences. A wide range usage of new media applications especially in microblog,micro-channel,SNS and other social media,also makes the spread environment todayshow its diverse,interactive,real-time features and so on. These new media hasgradually replaced television,newspaper and other traditional media,meanwhilepresented new demands for the government about information disclosure about publicrelations crisis. Traditional "block" approach has been unable to adapt to the newsituation,and the passive mode can not only aggravate the negative response to thecrisis,but also be a heavy blow to the credibility of the government,then burden thenegative impact on the image of the government. Whether local government publiccrisis relations under new media condition can succeed or not depends greatly on therecognition of new media condition,the key of which points to whether thedepartment of local government can integrate the characteristics of new media tohandle information, besides with fair and open approach.This paper clears up the related theory of the new media with that of goodgovernance,then analyses the demand to local government public crisis relationsunder new media condition,and integrates the status quo,specific cases and the theoryof good governance with local government public crisis relations,to explore deeplyinto the existing problems and causes of local government public crisis relations.Through the exploration and analysis,this paper argues that in the new mediaenvironment,local government public relations problems of the crisis are as followed:weak public relations crisis consciousness,improper usage of public power,the lack ofeffective communication mechanisms,while the causes of this are as followed: missing public crisis relations agency body,imperfect crisis administration system,indistinct function orientation for local government and so on. To solve theseproblems,this paper proposes suggestions for local government to enhance the publiccrisis relations ability under the theory of good governance,meanwhile,builds aphased response mechanisms to local government public relations crisis,namely: toestablish early warning and collection mechanisms in the latent phase of the crisis; toestablish an information disclosure mechanism in the previous phase of the crisis; toestablish mechanisms to guide public opinion in the ongoing phase of the crisis; toestablish public opinion handling mechanism in the subsiding phase of the crisis. Forpublic crisis in the new media environment,local governments need to ensure basicfairness,openness and flexibility in the rational use of new media to deal with thecrisis event,to be able to keep active,rational and effective manner to resolve publiccrisis,maintaining social stability and development. I believe that the study of thispaper will,to some extent, contribute to enhance local government public crisisrelations ability.