Fewer channels, better services

In this era of information explosion and diminished attention spans, it’s really difficult to acquire an online following and retain their interest.

That explains the motive why Le’an Township Government in Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province stopped refreshing its official WeChat account “Safe Le’an” at the end of last month.

Many of the contents published by this account since Jan. 1 this year had an average page view of less than 10, with quite a few posts being read by only one or two persons, most likely the editor and another staffer of the township government. Ironically, its notice of service suspension on April 25 was read more than 200 times and garnered six likes, likely the most attention the account has captured in its history.

Le’an is just one example of the recent trend seen in Chinese cities, where grassroots levels of government agencies are having second thoughts about their new media channels. Cities such as Kunming, Changsha, and Xi’an saw several of their district-level administrations suspending WeChat services late last month and merging their functions into a one-stop district or city-level platform.

The suspended accounts, run by randomly assigned staffers instead of new media professionals, often published quasi work reports or recast policies by higher levels of governments in an unattractive format. Naturally, people wouldn’t read them.

The grassroots administrations had embraced social media to reach out to citizens and hoped to provide them with more channels for services. However, in our era of overloaded information, “the more, the merrier” has given way to “less is more.” Having one platform provide all the necessary information and services saves troubles for both citizens and government staff given the extra workload to edit and publish unread posts.

In the Jiangsu city of Zhangjiagang, some WeChat accounts run by local schools were also suspended, a move hailed by Chinese netizens. Such school accounts frequently post about events and competitions that require parents to “like,” “forward” or “vote” for them or their teachers, which becomes a burden for parents. Instead of having a professional jury to review candidates’ achievements or performances at competitions, a tally of online votes seems to be a democratic process but is in fact biased and in huge favor of those who push harder.

Today’s teachers have plenty of means to communicate with parents, with the most effective being WeChat group notices or one-on-one messages. A WeChat public account, which is not really necessary, can put extra workload on the shoulders of young teachers, who should focus more of their energy on teaching and guiding students through the challenges of campus life.

As early as 2018, China’s State Council published a guide regulating the new media expansion of government departments. A department should run no more than one account on a social media platform, the guide said, adding that accounts with similar functions and fewer than normal following should be closed down to prevent redundancy.

During the massive expansion of digitalization, levels of governments also need to be aware of the digital gap between various demographics. For example, in a rural community whose residents are primarily senior citizens, sending out pamphlets and holding events in public areas can be a better way to serve the people and educate them about important issues.

That said, there are laudable new media accounts run by government agencies, with one successful example being Shenzhen’s Public Hygiene and Health Commission (SZPHHC). Incorporating services such as vaccine reservation, humorous videos of pop science concerning people’s health, and timely messages and reminders in well-edited essays and cute cartoons, the SZPHHC official account publishes posts with an average page view of more than 100,000.

As China shifts toward quality and sustainable growth in every aspect, it’s more relevant now than ever that we bear in mind: Quality matters more than quantity, and each effort we make, we should make it count.

(The author is a Features editor of Shenzhen Daily.)