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Cited by 652Public Relations and Crisis CommunicationCommunication and COVID-19 ImpactE-Government and Public Services

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 72 of the 72 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Unpacking the black box: How to promote citizen engagement through government social media during the COVID-19 crisis

Open access
Chen, Qiang, Min, Chen, Zhang, Wei, Wang, Ge, Ma, Xiaoyue, Evans, Richard·2020·Computers in Human Behavior
DOI 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106380PMC PMC7151317
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Abstract

During times of public crises, governments must act swiftly to communicate crisis information effectively and efficiently to members of the public; failure to do so will inevitably lead citizens to become fearful, uncertain and anxious in the prevailing conditions. This pioneering study systematically investigates how Chinese central government agencies used social media to promote citizen engagement during the COVID-19 crisis. Using data scraped from 'Healthy China', an official Sina Weibo account of the National Health Commission of China, we examine how citizen engagement relates to a series of theoretically relevant factors, including media richness, dialogic loop, content type and emotional valence. Results show that media richness negatively predicts citizen engagement through government social media, but dialogic loop facilitates engagement. Information relating to the latest news about the crisis and the government's handling of the event positively affects citizen engagement through government social media. Importantly, all relationships were contingent upon the emotional valence of each Weibo post.

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Metadata

Authors
Chen, Q., Min, C., Zhang, W., Wang, G., Ma, X., & Evans, R.
Affiliations
  • Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
  • City University of Hong Kong (HK)
  • Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
  • Central China Normal University (CN)
  • Brunel University of London (GB)
Corresponding author
Zhang, Wei
ORCID
Venue
Computers in Human Behavior
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-09
Volume
110
Pages
106380
ISSN
0747-5632 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.chb.2020.106380
PMC
PMC7151317
OpenAlex
W3015216621
Cited by
652
References
72
Citations by year
2026: 33 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 120 · 2022: 133 · 2021: 164 · 2020: 48
FWCI
139.48
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Computers in Human Behavior (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) (Brunel University London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Social Science Foundation of China (17CXW026)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Public Relations and Crisis Communication
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › E-Government and Public Services
Keywords
citizen participation, government social media, COVID-19 pandemic, crisis communication, Weibo, media richness, content types, emotional valence

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