Business / Opinion

Government has work to do on blogs

By Liang Ma (China Daily) Updated: 2014-02-24 07:34

The rise of social media and Web 2.0 technologies has transformed ordinary people's lives and their interactions with governments. Micro blogs, WeChat and other social media applications are being increasingly adopted and used by government organizations and officials in China to facilitate communication with the public. According to a recent report by the Office of Public Sentiment Monitoring, People's Daily Online, the numbers of micro blog accounts opened by government agencies and officials have reached record highs.

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By the end of last year, about 160,000 government accounts had been verified on the Tencent micro blog platform. The Sina Weibo platform has about 100,000 accounts. If we consider the accounts on other platforms, such as Netease and People's Daily Online, the number of government micro blogs will add up to 300,000, with an average annual growth rate of more than 100 percent in the past five years.

More than 3,000 government agencies have been using WeChat, a popular mobile instant messenger application developed by Tencent, to interact with netizens on public administration and public policy issues. The fact that China has the largest number of government micro blog accounts in the world can help it educate and serve the world's largest group of people with Internet access.

It is important to remember that citizens are not just passive recipients of public services. They are also contributors to the conception, design and implementation of policies.

Social media have loosened authorities' control over media channels, so everyone can express their opinions and concerns online. The ubiquitous use of social media gives people the opportunity to engage in government procedures and helps improve governance.

The use of micro blogs and WeChat by the government is an aspect of "Government 2.0" - the use of social media applications to make government more transparent and increase public participation and collaboration in governance.

Government agencies harness cutting-edge information technologies to respond more deftly to people's needs and harmonize their mutual relationship in order to garner or consolidate public support.

Government officials and civil servants use these applications to interpret their policy concerns and customize public services, which help them gain public support for their policies and programs.