Internet Governance: Social Mentality and Public Emotion Analysis on Online Media during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Mainland China

Based on a systematical discussion of the logical relationship between social mentality as a psychological basis of social actions and institutions and social governance, and the online emotion as the core element of the dynamic tendency of internet-based social mentality to form emotional energy to promote the operation of the internet society, this paper conducts an empirical study on the online social mentality and public sentiment guidance during the COVID-19 epidemic in mainland China. We use more than 1 million Weibo dynamic data of 104 accounts of three different types including official media, self-media, and big V media and conduct emotional calculation and judgment to address our objectives. The results show that the public sentiment presented by Weibo as the carrier is mainly positive, among which the official media play a positive role in guiding emotions, while the role played by big Vs' is limited during the COVID-19 epidemic. There exists different public sentiment stemmed from the regional differences brought by the heterogeneity of social governance, economic and social development beyond the media guidance. The study provides valuable internet governance experience on how the government can guide the public to respond to and deal with the crisis with a positive attitude when major public health emergencies occur in the future.