Government public communication is an intersectional concept of organizational communication and media norms. As a mechanism to promote the process of democratic society, government public communication is a “public discourse system” based on the best social decisionmaking framework of public decision-making, information access and social responsibility. With the reconstruction of the elemental context for government public communication in social media, “norm collaboration” has become the dominant mode of discourse practice in government public communication. This paper attempts to testify the strategic practice capability of multiple actors of government public communication on social media by analyzing the key texts with the method of recontextualization. It is found that in the major public events, the official institutions construct the “main tone” of public communication with the strong discursive text of “authoritative release”, and maintain the discourse order by means of intertextuality and rhetoric across the institutions. Media texts are highly dependent on government texts, especially its key texts, and take “collaborative rhetoric” as their main discourse strategy. In addition, the discourse space for the public to participate in government public communication is still restricted. Therefore, this paper puts forward the media normative theory of “collaborative responsibility” for government public communication in the domestic context, and advocates a collaborative paradigm of responsibility that combines social responsibility tradition with citizen participation.
Zhang Hongying.
Norm Rhetoric and Collaboration: Logic Reconstruction and Multiple Practice of Government Public Communication in the Context of Social Media. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2023, 45(9): 140-162