How Does Social Media Change Government's Role in Public Opinion Control - Research Paper Example

In 2009, the Chinese government blocked twitter since it felt that Twitter had radical impacts on the population and surmount to chaos and revolution in the country. In reiteration,” Weibo” which is a Chinese word for Microblog or the localized vision of twitter came to existence through explosive developments and started to play a crucial role in informing the civilian. Similar to Twitter the Chinese microblog bases on giving the Chinese people new information and giving them a chance to comment on what they feel is inadequate(Zhang & Chan, 2013).

However, the physical features of the blog differ from twitter though they serve the same purpose. The information from the microblog is normally short, it is limited to 140 words, and it is not possible to exceed the number. Second, the tweets or the users of microblogs are prone to a subscription to other people hence determining the popularity of the microblog or the tweets. Third, the microblog has the ultimate power of delivering a message instantly combined with the function of adding short videos hence increasing the accuracy of the information delivered.

Finally, it is possible to adapt the microblog to multiple devices such as smartphones, personal Macs hence making it possible to create a large number of users (Bamman, Connor & Smith, 2012).The main factors that account for the popularity of the Chinese microblog ought to be combined with the condition of the Chinese media. The condition of the Chinese media gives an appropriate ground for the development of the Microblog. The Chinese government highly influences the mainstream media hence making it impossible for the media to deliver quality and credible information to the civilian population.

The government has the efficiency to supervise the social to deter cases of incitement and ensure the credibility of information delivered to the public (Bertot, Jaeger & Grimes,2010). First, the propaganda department owned by the Chinese communist party and it reports directly to the party leaders. The main function of the department is leading the media industry in China and it includes every aspect and follows the policy of the communist party that helps to approach propaganda purpose.

The position and the power of the propaganda department of the communist party in China are bigger and fundamental compared to the other two departments; the ministry of culture of the People’s Republic of China and the state administration radio.