An Empirical Study On Citizens' Participation In Government Microblogging In Sudden Incident

In recent years,with the rise of microblogging platforms,government agencies use government microblogging for emergency management during a social crisis more frequently.Previous studies on the using of government microblogging by citizens mainly focused on information dissemination and rumor control,but in fact,the applicability of the microblogging platforms is highly dependent on the participation of citizens(including share,comment,like and save).Based on the political behavior of government microblogging,this thesis considers the citizens' participation behavior as a kind of political activity and conforms to the characteristics of political activities.Therefore,the civic voluntarism model(CVM)is used to study this thesis.Based on the three dimensions of CVM model,the thesis put forward six hypotheses to explore the main factors that affect citizens' participation in government microblogging during emergencies.In addition to the political characteristics,this thesis also takes into account the IT characteristics of microblogging.From the perspective of resource based view,this thesis considers IT ability as a moderate variable,which affects the relationship between CVM and citizens' participation behavior.In this way,we put forward five hypotheses.This thesis uses the method of empirical research and the structural equation model to analyze data and verify hypothesis.During data analysis,this thesis analyzes the two types of participation behaviors respectively.Finally,six variables,namely,perceived reciprocity,emotional support,rumor control,political efficacy,civic skills and mobilization,are the main factors influencing citizens' participation.IT competencies have a positive effect on the relationship between emotional support,rumor control,political efficacy,and civic skills in citizens' participation behavior,and have a negative regulatory effect on perceived reciprocity and citizens' participation.Studying the factors which influence citizens' participation behavior in government microblogging are benefit to the individual and the government.On one hand,it can promote the citizen' participation in the government microblogging.And on the other hand,it helps the government manage emergency better.