Balancing act: How do local governments use social media in crises?
利用中国地方政府在新冠疫情第一波期间的疫情数据和社交媒体帖子，定量研究了危机严重程度和应对资源如何影响政府社交媒体的使用，发现首例确诊会显著增加使用，且医疗资源越丰富效果越强，累计病例数则呈倒U型影响。
Governments can benefit from social media usage in crisis management, but the amplified public scrutiny facilitated by social media may also impede crisis management and damage reputations. How governments balance such benefits and risks when using social media for crisis communication remains an open question. With a data set of epidemic statistics and social media posts of local governments across China during the first wave of COVID-19, we quantitatively investigate how the local crisis situations and coping resources influenced government usage of social media. Our analysis reveals that the first confirmed case in a city leads to a significant increase in government social media use. This effect is stronger in cities with more medical resources. In addition, the number of cumulative cases has an inverted U-shaped influence on government social media use. These findings suggest that governments value the importance of social media for crisis handling and reputation protection, adapting their communication strategies based on the crisis severity and their own capacities.