1.Introduction

The emergence of new media has changed the way people transmit information to a certain extent and expanded the scope of public opinion dissemination. As the main body receiving information, the public has a certain degree of autonomy and blind conformity in the process of disseminating information, which also leads to certain limitations in information dissemination. At the same time, new media as a medium that can provide people with a platform for communication and exchange, reduce the time required for information transmission, and enable public opinion to attract the attention of many groups in a relatively short period of time also ferments some public opinion, thus making the effect of dissemination more significant [1]. The uncertainty and specificity of information dissemination itself makes it all the more necessary to improve the regulatory mechanism of public opinion dissemination. For the study of public opinion guidance, most of the research directions have chosen social media to show that social media play a certain role in guiding the public to the center of public opinion. For example, McGregor and Shannon C. said that social media can bring public, collective, and societal components to representations of public opinion [2]. There are also some studies from the perspective of the mass media. For example, Chen Haifeng believes that ‘at the practical level, mass media have become the most important means of regulating and guiding public opinion, and even the guidance of mass media is regarded as the guidance of public opinion itself by default [3]. However, there is little mention of the new media’s guidance of public opinion, which, as a new force, cannot be ignored as a medium for guiding public opinion. This paper selects the ‘Jiang Ge case’ as the research object, uses literature review and data analysis methods to analyze the development process of public opinion in the Jiang Ge case’, and explores the influence of new media on its dissemination orientation of public opinion. At the same time, this is also for the new media platform to build a bridge with the public’s emotions and for the relevant departments to think of new ways to provide new ideas for communication.

2.Development of New Media and Public Opinion

Whether it is the elite media at the beginning, the slowly evolving mass media, or the current self-media, the development of new media at each stage is a testament to the continuous development of digital technology, which not only disseminates information but also provides a platform for the public to exchange information. The emergence of more and more apps similar to Weibo, Twitter, and YouTube has also expanded the speed and breadth of information dissemination and spawned communication methods such as website comments, forum posts, and emails. For example, during the high tide of public opinion in the Jiang Ge case, the number of viewers of the relevant videos of the persons involved was in the tens of millions, and the number of articles by V bloggers and the number of likes forwarded by netizens exceeded 100,000+ [4]. This means that more and more people have the opportunity to express their opinions freely. But from another perspective, the emergence of new media has also lowered the threshold for disseminating information. Although it is freedom, some netizens also regard freedom as wantonness and use new media platforms to spread public opinion at will. Because of this, more attention should be paid to how public opinion is generated and disseminated. There is a trigger for public opinion, which will be pushed to the climax when a particular problem is not solved or an event has controversial views, and the awakening of public self-consciousness makes them openly express their subjective remarks and strong positions through special platforms such as the new media, which has a strong impetus to the development of the event. The spread of public opinion is the output of a central point of view and then dispersed to the four sides of the dispersion. The central point of view will usually become the center of public opinion, that is, the opinion leader to lead the whole public opinion in a certain direction. The whole group of opinions will tend to be consistent, and at this time the polarization of the public opinion group has also been formed [5]. But once the center of public opinion changes, the orientation of public opinion will also change, and the final result will be due to the outbreak of public opinion after the calm analysis of a certain point of view and its end. The public opinion will also gradually subside.

3.General Situation of Public Opinion Dissemination of Jiang Ge Case

On November 3, 2016, Jiang Ge, a Chinese student studying at Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan, was murdered by his best friend Liu Xin’s ex-boyfriend Chen Shi feng in a rented room. This case received widespread attention at the time and sparked a storm of discussion on the Internet. For the ‘Jiang Ge Case’, the author will divide it into three stages: the germination period, the outbreak period, and the fading period for elaboration.

3.1.Budding Period

From November 3, 2016 to November 9, 2017, belongs to the germination period of the incident, which is specifically manifested in the fact that after the incident, Jiang Ge’s best friend Liu Xin said that she did not know who the murderer was, and a few days later, Jiang Ge’s mother revealed the relationship between the murderer, Chen Shi feng, and Liu Xin, and the police then began to carry out a specific investigation into the incident. Through microblogging, the incident continued to ferment, and more and more people began to pay attention to this case. At the same time, the public’s “Jiang Ge case” emotions are also in the embryonic stage, whether it is the mother of Jiang Ge’s concern and heartache or Chen Shi feng’s anger for the subsequent outbreak of the incident that laid the groundwork.

3.2.Explosive Period

From November 10, 2017 to December 20, 2017, was the outbreak period of the incident. Specifically, in November 2017, ‘Situation’ released nearly 25 interviews with Liu Xin and Jiang Ge’s mother. Negative comments swept in as ‘Mimeng’ and other self-promoters spoke out. The case further unfolded in the public eye and triggered a climax in public opinion. What should be considered even more is that the public paid less attention to the murderer Chen Shifeng than Liu Xin because of the remarks of some big V bloggers. Some fierce speeches and sharp words have also spawned many acts of cyber violence and many issues about cyber violence. According to the media distribution map of the volume of public opinion as shown in Figure 1, new media platforms occupy a dominant position in the dissemination of public opinion, and public sentiment reached its peak at that time.

Figure1: Media distribution of public opinion on the ‘Jiang Ge case’ [6].

3.3.Extinction Period

The incident has subsided since December 20, 2017. Specifically, on the afternoon of December 20, the ‘Jiang Ge Case’ was tried in the Tokyo District Court in Japan. Chen Shi feng was sentenced to 20 years in prison for two crimes of intentional homicide and intimidation. Although Chen Shi feng continued to appeal and withdraw the lawsuit afterwards, the upsurge of public opinion gradually subsided. So far, the ‘Jiang Ge case’ has faded from people’s vision. On October 15, 2018, Jiang Ge’s mother appealed against Liu Xin. On January 10, 2022, Liu Xin was sentenced to have made obvious mistakes in the case and should bear relevant legal responsibilities. Although Liu Xin appealed against the first-instance judgment, the original judgment was finally upheld. The public’s sentiment has also continued to recede, and they have begun to rationally view the incident itself and think about the social reality reflected in the incident.

4.The Influence of New Media’s Public Opinion Guidance on the ‘Jiang Ge Case’

From the budding period of the ‘Jiang Ge case’ to the outbreak period and then to the fading period, the public opinion field has turned from the initial extreme to calm. Rational thinking and rational expression are reflections on the previous emotional carnival. The performance of the new media in guiding the public’s opinion of the ‘Jiang Ge case’ is remarkable. The new media is more reasonable in setting the agenda, allowing the most detailed case details of the ‘Jiang Ge case’ to be presented to the public, which better restores the essence of the case. the whole picture [7]. While speeding up the dissemination, it also ensures that everyone has the initiative to master the discourse and that the public is the main body of public opinion dissemination. During the outbreak of the ‘Jiang Ge Case’, ‘Situation’ reported the incident in the form of short videos, but the fragmented editing made the incident one-sided, which to a certain extent weakened the enthusiasm of new media in guiding public opinion. The appearance of Wang Zhian, Mi Meng, and other characters made the media a tool for people to attend the carnival and ignited people’s passion for the event, resulting in something similar to Liu Xin and Jiang Ge’s Bloody Wonton, Is it Delicious?’s provocative title. Along with such headlines, more and more people use Weibo, Tieba and other new media platforms to crusade against Liu Xin. The platforms did not stop the situation from spreading, and more and more mainstream media are also on the sidelines. Adding fuel to the flames, the public continues to accept the packaged language, and the pressure of public opinion has gradually evolved into cyber violence. WeChat public accounts and Xiaohongshu recommendation pages also continue to push articles with negative emotions.

5.New Media Public Opinion Guidance Strategies

Solving the improper dissemination of public opinion is a problem that we should pay attention to at the moment. To correctly guide the dissemination of public opinion and let it spread in a positive direction, new media platforms should come up with new communication mechanisms, and the public should establish a correct awareness of public opinion dissemination and not blindly listen to rumors. At the same time, the relevant traditional media will provide assistance, and the government departments will provide corresponding support.

First of all, if the news is expounded without verification or with a certain tendency, it will inevitably lead to legal errors, which will have a greater adverse impact on the audience [8]. Therefore, each new media platform should constantly reflect on its own problems and introduce new mechanisms to improve the network environment and cut off the spread of inappropriate public opinion. At this stage, there are still some new media platforms that allow bloggers with influence in public opinion to spread inappropriate remarks. In light of the ‘Jiang Ge case’, if some media hadn’t deliberately made some radical remarks, the public’s emotions would not be so easily aroused, and people would be more willing to think about the incident itself and appreciate the social reality reflected in it. New media platforms can use new technological means, such as data models, to simulate the dissemination mechanism of inappropriate speech so as to inspire themselves to formulate new systems and improve the network environment [4].

Second, new media platforms can collaborate with traditional media. When public opinion develops in an uncontrollable direction, traditional media can take advantage of its wide coverage and high reach rate, and new media can take advantage of its combination of video, audio, text, and a high information retention rate [9]. The two cooperate with each other to develop together, and create a safe and clean platform in the process of continuous integration. At the same time, the two should also understand the importance of responding to the generation and development of public opinion, exert their own abilities as leaders in the agenda-setting function, and closely integrate with the public to form a virtuous circle. At the same time, the government and other administrative departments should also strengthen supervision and network governance, curb the generation of rumors and inappropriate speech from the source, and then continue to explore a more powerful system that can restrain Internet users on the basis of existing laws. inappropriate behavior. At the same time, the traditional government information release strategies ignored the negative emotion evolution mechanism [10]. The spread of negative emotions is very scary in the process of spreading an event, and many uncontrollable factors arise because negative emotions change the public’s opinion of the event. Therefore, relevant government departments can use new technologies such as big data to create a new environment guided by public opinion so that everyone can better understand the causes and results of the incident and continue to actively guide the public to jointly build a friendly communication environment.

Finally, in this era of network information, relying on unilateral power is far from enough; even with the improvement of the system, departmental constraints, and technological upgrading, if the netizens do not have self-consciousness of the awakening, it is also useless. Therefore, as a civilized network and a legitimate citizen, in the enjoyment of rights, they should also fulfill their obligations, including the right to freely express their views at the same time, but also pay attention to their own words between the proportions of gains and losses, in a rational voice.

6.Conclusion

In conclusion, during the outbreak of emergencies, the public’s emotional state can cause public opinion to develop in an uncontrollable direction, and the new media, as a platform, can have a catalytic effect in guiding public opinion. In today’s era of rapid development of new media, people can freely grasp the right to speak, but while using the right to speak, new media platforms should also pay attention to the orientation of public opinion dissemination and should take timely countermeasures when crises occur. New media plays a very important role in guiding public opinion, so new media platforms should guide public opinion correctly. When public opinion on the Internet begins to develop in an uncontrollable direction, citizens should be given correct value guidance to prevent them from going astray. The freedom of online public opinion is still an important factor leading to online violence. Relevant departments should also actively explore reasonable ways to guide the direction of public opinion so that everyone can jointly establish a good online public opinion environment. However, this paper still needs to involve sociology, psychology, and other related knowledge in the process of studying public emotionalization, and the author will use more related theories to improve its research on this aspect in the future.

Acknowledgment

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my teachers, because they gave me many valuable suggestions when I was writing and also gave me support and encouragement when I encountered writing bottlenecks. At the same time, I would also like to thank my friends. Their concern has inspired me with infinite possibilities. I have also thought about many problems during the conversation with them. Furthermore, I would like to thank my parents, who gave me the confidence to finish writing. Without their careful teaching, I could not have completed my thesis.