Research On We Chat Group Embedding In Rural Governance From The Perspective Of Mediated Governance

With the advancement of urbanization and the rapid development of market economy in China,the original social order of "acquaintance society" and "local" in rural areas has gradually declined.Under the current trend of hollowing,atomization and fragmentation of rural areas,the traditional rural social order is facing reconstruction.At the same time,the traditional rural public space also quickly faded out of the villagers’ lives,showing a shrinking trend.In fact,the rapid popularization and development of the Internet has made it an important field of grass-roots governance,and the social platform swept by network technology has made the reconstruction of rural public space in the network possible.With the rapid popularization of online social platforms represented by We Chat in rural areas,a large number of We Chat communities based on geographical or blood ties and built around public affairs and grass-roots management have brought many villagers and grass-roots managers into the same online public space,where villagers and cadres discuss rural public affairs,reflect and understand demands.In the grass-roots government We Chat group,many departments or departments have realized the task distribution at any time,immediate feedback and whole-process supervision;In the village affairs We Chat group,villagers are increasingly skilled and frequent in expressing their opinions and attitudes on public affairs through We Chat group;In the self-organized We Chat group of villagers,specific villagers have strengthened neighborhood feelings and carried out public actions.All kinds of We Chat communities have become increasingly mature in rural areas,and become a field for grass-roots governance and participation in politics.It not only promotes the progress of rural social democracy,but also contributes to the implementation of rural revitalization strategy.This study,from the perspective of media governance,investigated the use of We Chat groups of the masses and cadres in many villages and communities in D Town,L District,Nanjing,and comprehensively used fieldwork,interviews and text analysis methods to observe and analyze the information exchange behavior of villagers and grass-roots managers in the We Chat community.In the face of such diverse interview information from cadres to the masses,from relatives and friends to work groups,from Fushan Village to Huayuan Village,the author classifies many We Chat communities into three categories according to the motivation of establishment,membership and functional characteristics-namely,township government We Chat group,village-level village affairs We Chat group and villagers’ self-organized We Chat group.Based on the issues in the We Chat community,this paper explores the impact of the network community on township cadres,village committee members,village elite groups and ordinary villagers from the perspective of grass-roots governance,and discusses the new trend and reform direction of rural governance.The research found that the information communication and dissemination within the We Chat group has the characteristics of breaking the time and space boundary,the group members’ virtual presence together,and the timeliness,openness and sharing of group chat information.The government We Chat group has become a new strategy for political information dissemination,and has also become a routine means to promote government work and social governance.Compared with formal documents,meetings,telephone and other traditional political communication strategies,the government We Chat group has profoundly changed the logic and mechanism of government affairs and reshaped the deployment,supervision and assessment system between the upper and lower levels;Establish a coordination and linkage governance system between decentralized departments;Rebuild the competition system between horizontal government departments at the same level.Online Wechat groups which set up in villages offer the a space for public communication to the local villagers,so that the family ties in traditional rural societies were restored,and the acquaintance relationship network can be maintained.In addition,Local villagers participate in public activities in online Wechat groups,expressing their personal views,and promote the handling and settlement of public affairs.The villagers’ self-organized We Chat community is built on the basis of common interests or stakeholders in a specific matter.The information exchange within the group is highly focused on a specific matter of common concern to the members.The communication within the group deepens the connection of specific circles and effectively promotes the settlement of collective appeals represented by rights protection.