Supervision of Public Opinion under the Background of Social Co-governance-Take the Changsheng Vaccine Incident as an Example

Ma Xiaonan,Tian Lijuan

(School of Business Administration, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China)

Abstract Objective To provide reference for the news media to give play to the role of public opinion supervision in time based on the background of drug safety and social co-governance.Methods The method of case analysis was used to make a retrospective study on the Changsheng vaccine incident in 2018.Then the role of mainstream media,pharmaceutical media,and self-media in the supervision of public opinion was investigated.Results and Conclusion Both mainstream and pharmaceutical media played an excellent role in supervising the Changchun Changsheng vaccine incident.However,the content published by some pharmaceutical media was hard to understand by ordinary people.Besides,the role of self-media in public opinion supervision was polarized.Some self-media closely kept pace with mainstream media in public opinion supervision.Other self-media unilaterally pursued the click rate,publishing false information to guide wrong public opinion.The news media should optimize the supervision efficiency of drug safety.On the one hand,pharmaceutical media should pay attention to the fact that readers may not understand the difficult terms because they are not professional.On the other hand,self-media practitioners should improve their professional quality so that they will not publish some fake news to mislead public opinion.

Keywords: social co-governance;Changchun Changsheng vaccine incident;news media;public opinion supervision

On March 5,2014,former Premier Li Keqiang proposed to implement the common governance of multiple social subjects in multiple fields (referred to as social co-governance) at the Second Session of the 12th National People’s Congress,laying a solid foundation for comprehensively deepening the reform[1].In 2015,General Secretary Xi Jinping also proposed the concept of social co-governance at the level of social governance[2].As a new way of social governance,social co-governance adopts a new governance structure and governance mechanism,which is a useful supplement to traditional government regulation[3].Since then,drug regulatory agencies have actively built a social co-governance system for drug supervision,which aims at forming a social co-governance pattern with government regulation,corporate responsibility,industry self-discipline,social coordination,public participation,and media supervision to improve the efficiency of drug supervision and ensure the safety of a public medication.To change the traditional drug safety governance system with the government as a single governance body,and build a social co-governance model of drug safety with the participation of multiple entities,shared responsibilities,and joint construction has become an inevitable choice under the new situation in the new era.Besides,it is the inevitable path to improve the modern governance capacity of drug safety with adequate drug safety supervision[4].

With the development of internet technology,news media has aroused public interest by exposing product quality problems,which plays an increasingly prominent role in the social co-governance pattern of drug regulation and has gradually become the focus of drug safety regulation research[5].It is the focus of drug safety supervision research.However,in recent years,some drug safety incidents have occurred frequently.In the social co-governance pattern of drug supervision,the news media,a multi-subject communication platform,can guide public opinion.But the news media did not play a better role.Therefore,the news media should assume more social responsibilities to supervise public opinions in a timely and correct manner.

As a major vaccine safety emergency,the number of Changchun Changsheng vaccines involved was enormous,which had a bad impact on people’ medication safety.It triggered a crisis of public confidence in China’s vaccine industry.By reviewing the Changchun Changsheng vaccine safety incident in 2018,this paper analyzes the supervision responsibility of news media in drug safety from the perspective of social co-governance and puts forward some suggestions.

1 Basic concepts

1.1 Media classification

With the development and application of internet technology,supervision by public opinion of media is developing towards the direction of precision and intelligence and initiative of big data,and its role is becoming more significant.News media are divided into two categories,mainstream media and non-mainstream media[6].Mainstream media specifically refer to major and local party newspapers and journals (People’s Daily,Chongqing Daily,etc.) and state-funded news websites (Xinhua Net,People’s Daily,CCTV,etc.)[7].Non-mainstream media mainly include pharmaceutical media (such as China Medical Newspaper,Medical Economics Newspaper),self-media (such as “Shou Ye”“Guoguan” and other WeChat public accounts),and other non-mainstream media (such as Daily Financial News,South Daily,and other business media).As most of the other non-mainstream media reprint articles from mainstream media,pharmaceutical media and selfmedia,their originality is not enough.Besides,their authority and professionalism are not as good as those of mainstream media and pharmaceutical media,their influence is limited.Considering the above factors,nonmainstream media such as pharmaceutical media and self-media are studied in this paper.

1.2 Definition of public opinion supervision

The new version of the “Drug Administration Law” stipulates that the news media shall carry out public welfare propaganda of drug safety laws and regulations,and conduct public opinion supervision over illegal acts.The propaganda and reports on drugs shall be comprehensive,scientific,objective and fair.The supervision by public opinion of the media in the law refers to the media entrusted by the public uses the media resources to form news and public opinion by disclosing facts,disseminating information,and judging personnel,thus supervising the object[8].

2 Empirical analysis

2.1 Case presentation

On July 5,2018,relevant national departments received a report of vaccine fraud from the internal personnel of Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology Co.,Ltd.(referred to as Changchun Changsheng Company).They conducted a flight inspection on Changchun Changsheng company.On July 15,2018,the National Medical Products Administration announced that Changchun Changsheng had some violations of the good manufacturing practice (GMP),such as record fraud in the production of freezedried human rabies vaccine.Therefore,it instructed Jilin provincial drug administration to withdraw the relevant GMP certificate of Changchun Changsheng company quickly.During this flight inspection,it was found that all batches of products involved had not yet left factory and marketed,and all products were effectively controlled.On July 16,2018,Changchun Changsheng Company called back the exported vaccines.After inspection by relevant departments,no quality problems were found in the vaccines sold by the enterprise.On July 19,2018,the 2017 DPT (diphtheria,pertussis,tetanus) vaccine incident of Changchun Changsheng company was revealed.From July 2018 to October 2018,government departments conducted accountability and punishment on the company,directors,and relevant government staff.After the incident,Changchun Changsheng Company withdrew from the market in December of that year,and it went bankrupt in November of the following year.

2.2 Media supervision

Based on the change in the Baidu search index and the trend chart of event,this study divides the event into three stages.It analyzes the change in information communication situation of mainstream media,pharmaceutical media,and self-media in drug safety emergencies.

2.2.1 Event development stage

Searching with “Changchun biology” as the keyword to the relevant data shows that the comprehensive influence index of the event is 94.1%.In comparison,the average value of similar events is 57.1%.Therefore,the Changchun Changsheng vaccine incident had a significant influence at that time.Based on the Baidu search index in Fig.1 and the event transmission trend in Fig.2,the Changchun Changsheng vaccine event is divided into three stages of incubation,development and extinction.

Fig.1 Baidu search index map

Fig.2 Event propagation trend graph

2.2.2 Information dissemination and public opinion supervision

Information dissemination is a process that takes information as the core,releases relevant information for the audience of information,and plays an important role in the society.In the Changchun Changsheng vaccine incident,the supervision responsibility of public opinion in information dissemination will be analyzed from four perspectives of real-time news release,audience,public opinion guidance,and coordination.Media information dissemination presents a phased development trend with time and events changing.According to the situation map of communication,the whole event is divided into the incubation period (July 5,2018 to July 21,2018),development period (July 22,2018 to July 31,2018),and extinction period (August 1,2018 to December 31,2018).

(1) Incubation period (July 5,2018 to July 21,2018).As a drug safety emergency,the Changchun Changsheng vaccine incident is unpredictable.In the early stage of the incident,the investigation was uncertain.The government had not described the incident in detail,focusing on the notification and handling measures.Meanwhile,the public opinion was under control.At this stage,the news media played a role of information processor,transmitting information timely,accurately,and scientifically,which was a communication platform for all parties.

From July 15 to July 21,2018,Xinhua Daily Telegraph,People’s Daily,China Medical Newspaper,Medical Economics Newspaper,Healthcare Executive and other media quoted from official reports and served as the government mouthpiece.The content featured brief coverage and low frequency.At this time,few people noticed the issues,and they felt angry about the companies involved and were worried about the safety of the vaccines.

(2) Development period (July 22,2018 to July 31,2018).At this stage,people’s anger and criticism reached the peak.It all started with an article “King of vaccines” written by a blogger “Shou Ye”.It caused a nation-wide health scare with eye-catching words to mislead the public.Then several self-media forwarded the article without verifying the authenticity of the information,which caused public panic.

From the perspective of official news real-time release,mainstream media,pharmaceutical media,and self-media can achieve real-time fact transmission and communication in terms of information release frequency,which not only meets the public’s needs for drug safety emergencies,but also ensures the openness and transparency of information to a certain extent.Among them,mainstream media,such as People’s Daily,taking advantage of its characteristics of significant influence,wide dissemination,and high authority,issued 13 articles,about one per day.It conveyed the truth and progress of the incident to the public timely.Pharmaceutical media,such as Medical Economic Newspaper,focused on reporting factual,scientific,and objective information on the first page of the newspaper.However,some self-media unilaterally pursued the rapid update of information,the release frequency and hits,publishing relevant information without a clear source,resulting in the distortion of some information and misleading the masses.

From the perspective of the news audience,as a communication platform,mainstream media can disseminate information from all parties in multiple directions.It is not only a platform for the government to disseminate information such as official attitudes and handling measures,at the same time,it is also a platform for public opinion.Among the mainstream media,the People’s Daily and Xinhua Viewpoint quoted accurate information from the perspective of Changchun Changsheng Company and the official government to convey the progress of the event,the government’s attitude (the instructions of the premier),the flow direction of vaccine,vaccine safety,vaccine replanting to the public,which alleviated the public’s tension to a certain extent and fulfilled the reasonable responsibilities of communicators.At the same time,the People’s Daily timely asked the government questions from the perspective of the public and conveyed public opinion to the government.Pharmaceutical media,such as China Medical Newspaper,reported the issue with more professional terms.Therefore,their analysis of vaccine safety events is more profound.However,due to the insufficient of professional knowledge,the relevant information transmitted by pharmaceutical professional media cannot be fully and accurately understood by the public.The audience of self-media is mainly the public,and its content and terms are easy to understand,which is highly acceptable to the public.However,the doubt about the authenticity of its information will also cause some trouble to the public.

From the perspective of public opinion guidance,at this stage,public attention mainly focuses on the following parts: 1) Paying attention to the flow of vaccines involved;2) Calling for severe punishment of the enterprises and persons in charge;3) Questioning the response of the enterprises involved and the loopholes in supervision;4) Questioning the bottom line of China’s medical industry.The news released by the mainstream media made relevant responses around the above concerns.They grasped the timeliness and initiative of the news,accurately transmitting the official attitude at the first time,reporting the progress of the facts in time,alleviating the public panic and dissatisfaction to a great extent,stabilizing the public mood and guiding the benign development of public opinion.Besides,pharmaceutical media used professional data and professional knowledge to make authoritative interpretations of emergencies,which clarified relevant rumors to help alleviate public panic.Meanwhile,the writing difference between self-media was polarized.Some self-media,such as the account of “Shou Ye” described the loss of state assets,vaccine fraud,professional doubts,and capital operation means of the enterprise leaders in the article called the “King of vaccines”.As a source of information,it did not take into account the public opinion risk control of issuing relevant information.Some descriptive words greatly aroused a public trust crisis in the government’s credibility.The article “King of vaccines” was fermented.Although it was deleted after being reproduced millions of times,it did not respond appropriately to the follow-up news and public questions,triggering a heated discussion among the public.In addition,some self-media accounts faked “Shou Ye” to pursue the number of hits and released false information.Some public members carried out small-scale dissemination without verifying the authenticity of this information,further detonating public opinion.However,some self-media,such as “Guoguan”,released an article with the title “Bad vaccines had been used by 210 000 children: It was no problem with them”.It conveyed the idea that vaccinating the bad vaccines had no harm to the human health.WeChat official account of “Cats Coming” refuted the rumor that vaccines were poisons.

From the perspective of coordination and supervision,the news media have many communication resources and information resources.Most public use media to find out the truth of an event.The news media should make good use of their resources to supervise public opinion.They should not only ask questions and comments from the perspective of the public,but also coordinate experts and other professional resources to answer questions and solve doubts for the public,thus easing the public’s panic and earnestly safeguarding the public’s rights.At this stage,the mainstream media actively assumed their social responsibilities,popularized vaccine-related knowledge,answered questions and dispelled doubts for the public from the perspective of professional cognition.Among the pharmaceutical media,the Health Times released many popular science articles to provide the public with scientific and authoritative information.However,due to the limitations of its audience,communication power,and influence,it was not as effective as the mainstream media.Due to its resources and capabilities,self-media played a limited role in coordination and supervision.

(3) Extinction period (August 1,2018 to December 31,2018).In the later stage of the public health event,the number of people concerned about the events decreased,and public opinion gradually returned to normal.Meanwhile,the media mainly focused on the later progress of the event,issuing articles to rebuilt public confidence and transmit positive signals.In addition,the media focused on the underlying causes of the incident,examining the incident from a critical perspective,summarizing relevant experiences and lessons,which could guide public opinion well.

Then we analyze from the perspective of article frequency.At this stage,the mainstream media,such as People’s Daily,issued 14 articles to report the progress,the results,the government accountability list and accountability results,the batches of vaccines involved and replanting measures,the compensation scheme,the final administrative punishment,criminal punishment and enterprise outcome etc.At the same time,the media reflected on the incident,reporting the investigation results of all vaccine manufacturers in China,easing the public’s panic about vaccine quality and rebuilding the public confidence.At this stage,pharmaceutical media such as Medical Economic Newspaper also continued to follow up on the progress of the event,actively publishing event reflection news,making recent comments on vaccine regulatory ideas,regulatory loopholes,and relevant regulatory laws,and transmitting positive signals of the industry to assist the recovery of the industry.Some self-media made brief reports on the follow-up of the event but did not make a profound discussion due to the limitations of professional knowledge.

3 Summary

In the process of supervising public opinion,the mainstream media had their advantages and disadvantages.Firstly,the frequency of articles issued by the mainstream media closely follows the development trend of events,and the whole process is quickly,accurately and completely.Secondly,the content of the articles focuses on the case,supplemented by the popular science of vaccinerelated knowledge.Thirdly,the readers of the articles include the government agencies,enterprises involved and the public.lastly,the media communicate with the government,the public and companies involved,guiding public opinion and maintaining social stability.However,some mainstream media have the problem of single information release and public opinion guidance.Among the 1.032 billion internet users in China,young people aged 20-39 account for about 37.2%[9].This proportion shows that most of the online public opinions are from young people,which requires the news media to start with the cognition of young people in the online public opinion guidance to better achieve the goal of opinion supervision.However,some mainstream media publish news from the perspective of propagandists,and they only report the causes,processes,and results of events.The news lacks novel presentation forms and is less attractive to young readers.In the early reports of drug safety incidents,the mainstream media primarily forward official instructions,and there is little news about the in-depth investigation of the incident.After drug safety emergencies,netizens also question the ruling ability of drug regulatory departments.Currently,the public opinion guidance effect of in-depth investigation news is better than forwarding official statements.

In the process of supervising public opinion,pharmaceutical media closely follow the frequency of publishing articles with the mainstream media.The content of articles is professional and authoritative,interpreting the events and guiding public opinion from a professional perspective.However,due to the lack of communication power and influence,the coverage and arrival rate of news from some pharmaceutical media is low,which also leads to the difficulty of reaching the expected goal of public opinion guidance after the occurrence of drug safety events.At the same time,due to many professional terms in the content,it is slightly obscure and challenging for readers to understand,which further limits the role of pharmaceutical media.

As to self-media,due to the characteristics of zero threshold of issuing articles,it has a polarization trend because the professional quality and moral quality of relevant issuers are uneven.On the one hand,some self-media keep up with the mainstream media in terms of frequency,perspective,and content,presenting the truth to the public,and assisting the mainstream media to guide public opinion and solve the vaccine trust crisis.On the other hand,self-media blindly pursue the frequency of publishing articles and the number of clicks,they release some false information.Since they forget about the risk control of information release,the public opinion is led,which brings some obstacles to the disposal of Changchun Changsheng vaccine incident by the government.

4 Recommendations

It is suggested that in the future,when performing the duty of public opinion supervision under the background of social co-governance,the news media should release the events quickly,accurately,and completely.The news media should optimize the participation efficiency of drug supervision from both internal and external aspects,which can be carried out through four measures: optimizing the regulatory system of news media,strengthening the supervision of relevant departments,enhancing industry selfdiscipline and strengthening the supervision of public opinion.Therefore,the internal promotion will be carried out by improving the professional quality and pharmaceutical quality of media practitioners.

As to external supervision,it is suggested that relevant departments need to formulate laws/regulations/departmental rules for the news media in the drug field based on the drug administration law and vaccine administration law,clearly regulating the reports of drug safety emergencies.As to the supervision of relevant departments,it is suggested that the drug administration department formulate supporting systems to strengthen the supervision of the media.To better promote the participation of the news media in drug supervision,a clear incentive and punishment mechanism should be established,which will encourage news media to give play to the function of industry governance and improve selfmanagement.Then,the voice of the public should be enhanced to realize the collaborative governance between the public and the government through the internet platform,which will stimulate the enthusiasm of the public to participate in drug supervision.

When improving the internal professional quality of media,the professional quality of media employees should be improved.Firstly,the employment threshold of relevant employees should be enhanced to limit the number of media employees.Secondly,the theoretical study of existing employees must be strengthened to enhance their sense of social responsibility.When reporting drug-related incidents,the first principle is to present the true situation of the incident,and resolutely resist the act of reporting false news or exaggerating the harm of the incident,so as to prevent misleading the public[10].Thirdly,the training of relevant laws and regulations should be increased to improve the legal awareness of news media practitioners.Besides,employees of various media should have some pharmaceutical knowledge.For example,when making relevant reports,they can fully communicate with experts in the pharmaceutical field to ensure the accurate interpretation of the news,the quality of news coverage and commentary analysis[11].Lastly,news reporters should have the training of drug safety emergency so that they can collect and write news when reporting drug safety events.