Research on Information Governance Path of Mass Media under "Infodemic"

. In the network environment, the communication characteristics of mass media provide trigger conditions for the formation and outbreak of malignant public opinion, and a small matter may be amplified and spread. In addition, fragmented content and methods of dissemination will also lead to misinterpretation of information, resulting in large-scale public distrust. And the arrival of the era of big data would herald the official entry of information exchange and public opinion dissemination into the all-media era. With the wide application of Internet technology, the establishment of platforms for public opinion dissemination, information communication and global sharing has broken the traditional geographical boundaries and limitations of time and space. Then hundreds of millions of network users could communicate and share data, opinions and ideas at the same time. Also, the limitations of traditional media in terms of atmosphere and transmission speed have been broken through, which also brings new challenges to information governance.


The transmission characteristics of "Infodemic"
After the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, the World Health Organization proposed that the Infodemic was too much information that made it difficult for people to find trustworthy sources of information, reliable guidance, and may even be harmful to people's health.

Fast spread
The application of Internet technology has facilitated a leap in the speed of information dissemination. And the original interpersonal communication method of word of mouth has little effect in the information age. In the era of social media, the speed of information release, dissemination and sharing has increased exponentially. To a certain extent, the speed of information dissemination even exceeds the speed of development, while the speed of false information is sometimes faster than that of real information.

Wide communication
In the era of integrated media, everyone can become a recipient and publisher of information. And it has broken the traditional monopoly barriers of information release. With the popular use of Weibo, WeChat, Douyin and other platforms, the public's desire to express is also increasing. What's more, the channels for dissemination of epidemic information are diverse, also the cost of dissemination is low, and the scope of dissemination subjects is wide, which would be an important feature of "Infodemic".

Great influence
The "epidemic" also implies the harmfulness of the dissemination process. In the media era, information dissemination covers a wide range, and the public has multiple channels for obtaining information. While fake news often spreads farther, faster, wider and deeper than true news. Therefore, it is easy to cause panic among the public, as well as creating a tense social atmosphere, and even affect social value orientation and government credibility what is highly harmful to society.

Strong confusion
A large amount of information about the epidemic is flooded in front of the public, such as "Bat Theory", "Shuanghuanglian", "Ibanlangen" and other cases. Then the public is prone to irrational judgments and behaviors in the face of the uncertainty and high threat of the epidemic, with the catalysis of public opinion together with strong deception.

Difficult to control
The fragmentation of epidemic information and the confusing nature of information have increased the difficulty of information governance to a certain extent. In the face of the irrationality of the public in crisis situations, coupled with information network dissemination, rapid fermentation, wide penetration, as well as imperceptible and silent, higher requirements for the government's effective information governance are put forward.

The role of mass media in participating in information governance and the challenges it faces
The epidemic has been included in the "international public health emergency". And it has the characteristics of agglomeration, rapid spread, and suddenness, and the management and control of related information would be also facing a severe challenge. Both traditional media and mass media in the Internet age would be playing an important role in the daily life of the public. What's more, online platforms provide netizens with a channel for free speech, as well as a platform for officials and various media to release information. As a provider of network services and information interaction, the platform is not only a "matchmaker" for multi-party exchanges or transactions, but also the operator's responsibility to maintain social ethics and protect public interests. In addition, it is the initial stage of information release and dissemination. Therefore, when conducting public opinion guidance in public emergencies, the role of the media platform's monitoring and management mechanisms cannot be ignored. If such information is quickly disseminated by netizens without review, it will lead to a situation that endangers the society. And to a certain extent, management mechanisms such as real-name authentication and information auditing on platforms liked official accounts, Weibo, and Douyin can curb the spread of false, dissatisfied, extreme and inflammatory speeches. In the Internet era, mass media would bring convenience to the masses of information transmission. During the spread of COVID-19, netizens are able to quickly understand the latest situation of the country's current management of epidemics through multiple media platforms. At the same time, in this special period, a large number of false, distorted, inaccurate, and anomie information breed, which has brought a great negative impact on the social order, while the mass media is facing a new challenge of information governance, which is prominently reflected in two aspects. Firstly, the operational capability of mainstream media needs to be improved. As an important source of information release, the mainstream media has a strong appeal to users. In the meantime, during the epidemic, all the information released by them has received greater attention from the public, which has a great impact on the information control and editing capabilities of the media. If the sources of information released are not reliable enough, and the unreliable information is easily released without scrutiny, it will cause emotional panic among the public. There is one more point, the information literacy of netizens is insufficient. Also, the average information literacy of netizens is relatively weak, and not everyone has a strong ability to identify information. In the vast amount of information, the weak ability of netizens to distinguish information directly affects the quality and effect of news dissemination.

Methods for mass media to participate in the governance of "Infodemic"
During the epidemic, the "Infodemic" is the main cause of adverse outcomes such as public panic and social unrest. By giving full play to the guiding role of the mainstream media, using various methods to play the guiding role, strengthening the early warning and prevention mechanism, and improving the quality of the public, the effect of the mass media's participation in the governance of the "Infodemic" should be improved.

Giving full play to the guiding role of mainstream media
Mainstream media plays an important role in guiding the public to receive and output information. Therefore, the content of information dissemination should be strictly controlled, and the time, content, process and even the effect of public opinion should be controlled. Mainstream news media should strengthen rationality and professionalism, and should not carry personal emotions, colors and prejudices, and should screen and control information to guide the public to establish positive cognition and views. During the outbreak of public opinion, the mainstream news media plays a role in fueling the flames, and can invisibly amplify a certain aspect of public opinion, thereby accelerating the gathering of mainstream public opinion. Therefore, mainstream media need to focus on scientific methods, seek truth from facts, help the public establish recognition and consensus, and then coordinate the order of information and guide public opinion to a benign transformation.

Applying various forms to improve attractiveness
In order to help the public quickly grasp the key points, news media can cooperate with a variety of methods of information release to transmit information. The main methods of information dissemination include text, photos, links, videos, and live broadcasts. When publishing information, the media should extract the core content of the massive information, highlight important information, and enable the audience to grasp the key points in a short time. The diversified methods of publishing are more in line with the diversified and fast-paced reading habits of the public, which is conducive to the audience to quickly, directly and comprehensively understand the progress of the epidemic in the vast sea of epidemic information, and grasp the key information in a timely manner.

Strengthening the early warning and prevention mechanism
In the early days of the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the media reported overwhelmingly that "human-to-human transmission has not been found" and "teenagers are not susceptible", etc. These conclusions have not been scientifically and rigorously confirmed, which has brought about a serious crisis of trust. It can be seen from this that in the era of Infodemic, the mass media should pay more attention to forward-looking in information governance and adopt an effective early warning and prevention mechanism. It is necessary to attach importance to the publicity and guidance of public opinion, and deepen the public's understanding of the importance and urgency of the issue, which can also provide an auxiliary reference for decision makers and improve information governance capabilities.

Improving public literacy
From the point of view of information public opinion, its creators, consumers and disseminators are all the public. In the context of the vigorous development of new media, it is very important to improve the public's information literacy, and it is necessary to strengthen the public's ability to identify, analyze, create and share information. While the emergence of the Internet has made speech more free, it has also brought more false rumors, making the public unable to recognize the truth. Screening the information for correctness and rationality, encouraging users to learn to read information, actively accepting information, and being leaders of opinions and intentions can make the public more active and creative when participating in information governance, and truly give full play to the public's ability to participate in information governance. supervisory function.

Conclusion
The epidemic will eventually pass, but the panic and slander caused by the "Infodemic" will have a negative impact on social order, and the result will be shared by the whole society. In the Internet age, real-time, high-efficiency, interactivity are important characteristics of new communication media. The "Infodemic" is developing rapidly under the new media technology. Whether in time or space, the boundaries of communication have been realized to a greater extent. The "Infodemic" has made us more aware of the importance of improving the information governance capabilities of the media. We need to conduct in-depth and comprehensive research on the laws of communication, and then optimize and improve the crisis response system. It is necessary not only to play the role of the "gatekeeper" of the mainstream media, improve its professionalism, and guide public opinion objectively and impartially, but also guide the public to strengthen self-discipline behavior and improve the quality of public information, so as to use online public opinion information in a reasonable, reasonable and lawful manner, forming a consensus in the battlefield of "epidemic" and "infodemic" and win the victory.