Chapter 57 Chapter 55 The official opened a blog and looked beautiful

Officials should put down their airs when they open blogs, and regard blogs as a personal and personalized communication medium, rather than a channel for speaking on behalf of officials. In recent years, the number of Chinese officials setting up blogs has gradually increased.From the initial release of e-mail addresses by officials, online answers to public questions, and the opening of blogs, the public can clearly feel that the pace of Internet administration is quietly advancing. However, the blogs of some officials not only have a few articles and have not been updated for a long time, but also have a full official style and lack of true feelings.There are also quite a few officials who "read the posts without replying", and have not formed a real communication with the public.

It is inevitable to repeat the mistakes of some official blogs in the past. When the blog was first opened, it was popular and had great expectations, but due to the above reasons, it was finally ignored by the public and basically forgotten. Professor Li Chengyan, a doctoral supervisor at the School of Government and Administration of Peking University, said in an interview with reporters: "Officials discussing public decision-making issues in private blogs will inevitably lead to indistinction between public and private, and cause contradictions and conflicts in the 'identity' of official blogs. The original meaning of what a blog should be.”

So, how many officials across the country open blogs?Due to the virtual nature of the Internet, officials rarely disclose their identities when they open blogs, so no one has been able to calculate an exact number so far.But some people estimate that the team of bloggers in our country is very large, and the number of official blogs will not be too small. According to data, blogs were introduced into my country in 2002, and the number of users was less than 10,000.In just a few years, the number of bloggers has been growing at an alarming rate. On January 6, 2009, Gao Lulin, vice chairman of the Internet Society of China, revealed: "As of the end of November 2008, my country's blog space exceeded 100 million, and the number of bloggers exceeded 50 million."

Officials start blogs in various fields, but the number of people is relatively concentrated in fields such as education, health, and commodity prices that are most closely related to the public.In terms of blog content, there are not only miscellaneous talks and random thoughts, but also explanations and introductions of government policies, or comments and opinions on hot issues in the industry involved. According to the reporter's understanding, among them, officials' comments and opinions on hot issues in the industry are the part of the official blog that attracts the most attention from the public.An official once lamented: "Many journalists stay on my blog every day. As long as I express my views and opinions on hot events, they will immediately write them into news and publish them."

"The emergence of official blogs provides a new mode of information administration, which is the embodiment of administrative management keeping pace with the times under the new situation." Li Chengyan said, "In terms of information acquisition and information exchange, the network is convenient, open and Advantages such as interactivity. If the official blog is well done, equal dialogue, online communication, and communication of information can shorten the distance between officials and the people. On the contrary, it is tantamount to destroying the image of officials.” According to reports, in July 2008, Chongqing Beibei District Transportation Bureau opened an official blog, which set a record of 6 pages of posts in 2 days.But after causing a sensation, the Bureau ignored the opinions and suggestions of netizens. The blog has not been updated or responded to for more than four months, and the public questioned it as a "show".

A senior Internet person familiar with the reporter also shook his head with a wry smile after browsing some official blogs, saying: “These official blogs lack individuality and are filled with logs similar to study summaries and work reports. comminicate." "Many of our leaders here regard blogging as a fashion." A friend who worked as a secretary for a leader in a certain city in Yunnan revealed to the reporter, "However, these leaders seldom write their own blogs. 'Written, reviewed by the leader, and finally posted on the blog in the name of the leader." In the traditional political atmosphere, officials often have a sense of mystery, and government actions are often regarded as internal affairs of the government and kept secret.

In recent years, with the improvement of people's rights and awareness of democracy in our country, the openness of government affairs has gradually become the inner expectation of the general public.The public urgently hopes to establish a brand-new information communication mechanism and interest expression mechanism to pass on their reasonable demands to officials in a timely manner. The "Government Information Disclosure Regulations" officially implemented on May 1, 2008 also clearly stipulates that people's governments at all levels and people's government departments above the county level should establish and improve the government information disclosure work system of their administrative agencies, and designate agencies to be responsible for their administrative agencies. Daily work of government information disclosure.

In this context, the emergence of official blogs has attracted too much attention and expectations from the public. For example, officials in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province collectively opened a blog, which has more than 800,000 hits in less than a year; When Junshou started his blog, it received more than 30,000 hits a day. "Our people still lack transparency and institutionalized channels for current public policy participation." Yin Yungong, a researcher at the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview, "The reason why officials open blogs can become news also just shows that The communication between the public and officials is not very smooth now, and the public expects a smoother and more convenient communication channel, and hopes that there will be more room for political participation.”

But the public has extremely complicated feelings about the appearance of the official blog.Many interviewees believe that our country’s officials are not short of channels to communicate with the public. If the specialized agencies at all levels and departments to receive reports and complaints can do their job effectively, and if all kinds of reports, hotlines, mailboxes, etc. really play a role, officials will open There is nothing "precious" about Bo. People's Daily Online once launched an online survey titled "Recently party and government officials are scrambling to open blogs. What do you think about this?"In just one day, nearly 2,000 netizens participated in the survey. Among them, 56.1% of netizens believed that officials’ blogging was “really a show”, 29% of netizens believed that it had “limited effect”, and only 12.7% voted in favor.

“On official blogs, I hope to see officials show the private and emotional side of ordinary people, instead of putting on a straight face and answering policies and regulations like many official blogs today.” Xuanwu District, Beijing A citizen surnamed Zhang in Honest Alley said. "There are hidden worries behind the prosperity of officials opening blogs, and the current system construction is of little significance." Professor Mao Shoulong, a doctoral supervisor at the School of Administration and Management of Renmin University of China, believes, "The blogs opened by officials are welcomed by netizens, which is worth encouraging. Not only can they better Doing the work is also conducive to building a good foundational relationship of trust between officials and citizens."

In addition, Mao Shoulong also raised two concerns. One is that government agencies and officials build blogs, which may be short-lived.The second is to worry that government agencies and officials will build blogs without distinction between public and private. The reason why the official blog is not favored by the majority of the people also includes the public's dissatisfaction with the government website that has invested huge sums of money, manpower and material resources, and is useless. "Officials opening blogs may, to a certain extent, dilute the fledgling e-government affairs." Yin Yungong said, "Many local government websites and e-government affairs are not doing well. The top priority is to make good use of the advantages of the Internet to govern for the people." It is understood that the current government website is not doing well. In addition to the report on the main activities of the local leaders, the content is to introduce the famous local tourism resources, and some policy promotion materials for the purpose of attracting investment, etc. If you open multiple local government websites, you will find that most of them are in a "semi-dormant" state.Many websites are still "old faces" at the beginning of their establishment. The policies and regulations published in prominent places were placed several years ago, and even the latest news on one website was released a few months ago.The reporter clicked on some main columns and found that they were either blank, or lacked timeliness and interactivity. Netizens in the forum left only a few words. "Government websites are generally updated slowly and lack interactive platforms. Such websites are of no practical significance to the public," Li Chengyan said. In 2008, a survey report by a professional organization showed that 57.5% of the public in my country had never visited government websites.The survey objects involved big cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Nanchang, Harbin and Chengdu. "No need" is considered by the respondents to be the most important factor, accounting for 55.7%. “Administrative information disclosure is not only what is currently published on some government websites, but should involve all aspects of government information that can be disclosed, including details of public finance, administrative law enforcement, and personnel decision-making, so as to satisfy the public’s administrative right to know.” Nankai University Doctoral supervisor Professor Qi Shanhong said in an interview with reporters. "It is a better and more institutional choice to better improve the government websites that have been generally established, and let them fully play the role of open government affairs and communicate with netizens." Mao Shoulong believes, "In this sense Said that blogs only play a complementary role, not a substitute.” Within the current political framework of our country, most officials still habitually represent themselves and speak for the government on blogs.Such ambiguous role positioning has caused contradictions and conflicts in the "identity" of the official blog to a certain extent. "To do a good job in government websites and e-government affairs is the job that officials need to do most." Yin Yun believes that "the official blog is a platform for expressing personal wishes, not a channel for speaking on behalf of the government. Therefore, officials can use the official blog Express your own views and opinions, but cannot represent the official position. At the same time, netizens should also regard the official blog as a place for personal communication." "Officials should not be condescending when opening a blog. They should truly reveal their true insights and have the tolerance to accept different opinions." Qi Shanhong believes, "A well-done official blog can allow officials to re-experience 'civic thinking' and better correct the shortcomings of officials' thinking. The roles are rigid. In this way, the ideal of government-civilian integration is in place.” "Writing on a blog is a labor-intensive and time-consuming task. Most officials are usually busy with official duties. It is not a problem to do a good job in the short term, but it is not easy to persist in doing a good job for a long time." Li Chengyan believes, "To Let officials get closer to the people, get in touch with public opinion better, and embody the spirit of democracy. In addition to doing research in the ground, we can also work hard to do a good job on the government website, play the role of various letters and visits, reports, hotlines, and mailboxes, and further improve our communication. mechanisms without having to rely on highly personal blogs.” "Officials must realize that blogging is only one of the ways to communicate with the public, and other communication mechanisms must be strengthened at the same time." Professor Xie Chuntao of the Central Party School believes, "Officials who write blogs must combine their job responsibilities with personal and personalized words and deeds. There are clear boundaries on the blog." Judging from the current situation, although the position of official blogs in the future government structure needs to be further explored.But what is certain is that officials set up blogs to understand public opinion, and people understand officials’ thoughts through official blogs. This is conducive to the interaction between the people and officials, and it also meets the inherent requirements of political civilization and progress and building a harmonious society.