ArticleComputers in human behavior2020
Unpacking the black box: How to promote citizen engagement through government social media during the COVID-19 crisis.
Article in Computers in human behavior, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 153 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
153 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 652 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Internet-Based Communication for Public Health: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Pooled it
- Social Media Use for Health Purposes: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Quality and Safety Risk Control in the Food Supply Chain: An Information Disclosure Approach to Supply-Demand Alignment.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Extracting public opinion on typhoon disasters in China: a sina weibo case study of landfalling typhoon Muifa (2022).Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Spontaneous activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex supporting self-control mediates the relationship between future time perspective and procrastination.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Cute Communication: Can Cute Discourse Be Used in Risk Communication?Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Promote citizen engagement with warnings - an empirical examination of government social media accounts during public health crises.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Promoting Public Engagement in Palliative and End-of-Life Care Discussions on Chinese Social Media: Model Development and Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Social Media Use and Oral Health-Related Misconceptions in Saudi Arabia: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- What should be publicly funded in the Colombian health system? A mixed methods study of citizens' perceptions.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Identifying determinants for promoting public engagement via Chinese E-government TikTok in public health emergencies.PloS one · 2025Article
- Targeting anger for COVID-19 prevention: The motivating role of anger on media use and vaccination intention.PloS one · 2025Article
- Should manufacturers choose technological innovation in dual-channel supply chains during emergencies?PloS one · 2025Article
- COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact on Vaccine Hesitancy: A Review.Oman medical journal · 2024Review
- Analyzing digital societal interactions and sentiment classification in Twitter (X) during critical events in Chile.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Article
- Evolutionary game analysis of multiple subjects in the management of major public health emergencies.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Article
- The emotions of Chinese netizens toward the opening-up policies for COVID-19: panic, trust, and acceptance.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Factors influencing public participation behavior relating to government microblogs on COVID-19 updates.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
93 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
During times of public crises, governments must act swiftly to communicate crisis information effectively and efficiently to members of the public; failure to do so will inevitably lead citizens to become fearful, uncertain and anxious in the prevailing conditions. This pioneering study systematically investigates how Chinese central government agencies used social media to promote citizen engagement during the COVID-19 crisis. Using data scraped from 'Healthy China', an official Sina Weibo account of the National Health Commission of China, we examine how citizen engagement relates to a series of theoretically relevant factors, including media richness, dialogic loop, content type and emotional valence. Results show that media richness negatively predicts citizen engagement through government social media, but dialogic loop facilitates engagement. Information relating to the latest news about the crisis and the government's handling of the event positively affects citizen engagement through government social media. Importantly, all relationships were contingent upon the emotional valence of each Weibo post.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.