Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 790-796 790 DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.107
GUIDANCE OF NEW MEDIA ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ANTICIPATION OF PARTICIPANTS IN EMERGENCIES
Wei Wang1*, Xiaoyue Wang2
Abstract New media communication is featured by the fast speed and wide breath of information transmission. With these features, the new media has a significant impact on the psychological anticipation of the participants in emergencies. This paper attempts to disclose the guiding effect of the new media on the psychological anticipation of those involved in emergencies. A questionnaire survey was carried out among the participants in emergencies. The survey results were analyzed to identify the psychological types and behavioral features of the participants. On this basis, the authors discussed how the new media affects the participants’ psychological anticipation. The results show that new media coverage of emergencies enjoys advantages in speed and breath, but lacks authenticity, and greatly affects the psychological status and emotions of the participants; the guidance of new media on the psychological status of participants in emergencies should be improved in three aspects: enhancing the management of new media, exerting the guiding role of new media and implementing timely intervention on the psychology of emergency participants. The research findings provide a guide on how to use new media to regulate the psychological anticipation in emergencies. Key words: New Media, Emergencies, Psychological Anticipation, Psychological Guidance. Received: 01-01-19| Accepted: 05-06-19
INTRODUCTION health events, and social security incidents that occur suddenly, have or may have serious social In the new era, new media has changed the traditional mode of news communication of harms, so that it will be necessary to take urgent measures. This kind of events will evoke the traditional media and anyone can disseminate discussion and participation of people (Deloache, information to others through different platforms (Brooks, Holttum, & Lavender, 2010). Chiong, Sherman et al., 2010) and the psychology Therefore, under the impact of new media, the of people involved in emergencies will change with the variation of events (Whiteley, Brown, information dissemination is now characterized Swenson et al., 2011). Since people involved in by fast dissemination speed and wide range (Xiong & Hou, 2012), but it also faces many emergencies are subject to the direct impact and their psychological change may affect their problems such as the authenticity of information behavior (Huesmann & Malamuth, 2010), so that (Kühne, 2013). Emergencies in information they are likely to become the threat to public dissemination usually refer to natural disasters, accidents (Jiao, Jo, & Sarigöllü, 2016), public security and social stability, thus requiring timely intervention and guidance (Keim &Noji, 2011).
Some important characteristics of 1Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China. emergencies are the confrontation between the 2Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310028, China. E-Mail: [email protected] masses and the government, the intense conflict between the masses and the government, the destructiveness to the society and the
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suddenness (Okdie, Ewoldsen, Muscanell et al., It can be seen from Figure 1 that the psychology 2014). After the rise of new media, such features of participants in emergencies are congregational have shown a more intensifying trend (Jones, psychology, psychology that the law does not blame Harris, Waller et al., 2011). When emergencies the public, mutual suggestion and imitation, occur, participants are vulnerable to information infection effect and unconscious mind. The from new media (Marcelo & Rodrigo, 2015), congregational psychology means that in the together with the increasing attention from the emergency, personal cognition, belief and judgment masses to the event, so it is likely that the will voluntarily become consistent with the group psychology of people involved may change and they would like to have the same behavior with drastically. Once becoming uncontrollable, the majority of the group. The reason for this people involved in emergencies may face legal congregational psychology is mainly referring to sanctions (Wong & Bård, 2018). Therefore, it can other individuals and fear to be isolated from the be seen that the new media communication will group; for people with the psychology that the law lead the psychological change of people, so it is does not blame the public, they believe that there of great significance to study the psychological are a large number of people in the group so that anticipation and guidance of participants. Based they will not face severe punishment, which is on the factors of new media communication, this caused by the cognitive bias of individuals for the paper makes an in-depth analysis of the law; the reason for the mutual suggestion and psychological anticipation and guidance of imitation of participants is that individuals are people involved in public emergencies, and gives influenced by others in the group, and thus their conclusions and countermeasures based on the behavior will become similar to that of others, which analysis results. is due to the lack of external restraints; the infection effect refers to the fact that participants are influenced by the language, body movements and even facial expressions of other participants. They PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES AND BEHAVIORAL are influenced by the emotion of the crowd, and this CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTICIPANTS IN emotion will accumulate and eventually erupt; EMERGENCIES unconscious mind is that individuals might have the Psychological Types of Participants same behavior with other people in the group due In the emergency, the psychological state of the to the pressure they face in the emergency. They will participants can be divided into five categories, as gradually lose individual consciousness, and then be shown in Figure 1. dominated by the group consciousness.
Figure 1. Psychological state of the participating people
Incidents participate in the psychological state of the crowd
Congregational Law does not blame Mutual suggestion Infection effect Unconscious mind psychology the public and imitation
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Behavior Characteristics of Participants and thus, this study analyzes the whole process from The description of the behavior characteristics of the beginning to the end of the emergency under participants in the emergency should be performed new media communication, so as to explore the based on different types of participants. In this study, change of the psychological state of participants in participants are divided into four categories and emergencies, as is shown in Figure 1. their behavioral characteristics are described It can be seen from Figure 3 that under the new separately, as shown in Figure 2. media, the psychological state of participants has As can be seen from Figure 2, this study divides changed significantly. The emotion has gradually the participants into close stakeholders, irrelevant intensified with the escalation of the event, and close stakeholders, loose stakeholders, and gradually stabilized as the event subsides, which irrelevant loose stakeholders. There is a close clearly reflects the congregational psychology, interest relationship and social relationship between infection effect and unconscious mind of close stakeholders and participants in emergencies participants. The main reason for the fluctuation of and the disposal of the event will affect their vital the psychological situation of participants in the interests, so their behavior will be extremely active event is the lack of public opinion expression and radical; loose stakeholders are often those mechanism, so that they cannot express their own people who have the same experience, so they have ideas, which leads to this psychological fluctuation. a high degree of concern for such events; irrelevant It will erupt when it reaches a certain threshold. close stakeholders are not directly related to emergencies, but they have certain social Figure 3. Psychological changes in the connection with direct participants of the event; participants in the emergency irrelevant loose interest have the least participation in emergencies and they are often involved in emergencies as bystander with sympathy, but it will also transmit relevant information when they have deeper understanding of the event.
Figure 2. Participation in population classification
Close interests are Close stakeholders not relevant
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STATE OF PARTICIPANTS IN EMERGENCIES UNDER NEW MEDIA Loose interests are Loose stakeholders not relevant COMMUNICATION After consulting new media practitioners, psychologists, management scientists, and public affairs administrative departments in the government, this study designs the Questionnaire Life Cycle of Emergencies under New Media for Psychological Characteristics of Participants in Communication Emergencies under New Media Communication. When the information of emergencies is The main respondents of the questionnaire are disseminated by the new media, the scope and those who have participated in or witnessed the speed of the communication will be far exceeded emergency. A total of 500 questionnaires are traditional media, so that it will have a far-reaching distributed and 460 questionnaires are collected, of impact on information receivers. For emergencies, which 395 are valid questionnaires with a recovery there will be a process from the beginning to the end rate of 85.87%.
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Characteristics of Participants in Emergencies This study first analyzes the personal Information Transmission Mode of Participants characteristics of participants in emergencies, such in Emergencies as gender, age composition, educational background, This paper investigates the way in which household registration and income sources, as is respondents obtain the information in the shown in Table 1. questionnaire, as shown in Figure 4.
Table 1. Characteristics of emergency Figure 4. Ways to participate in crowd participants information
Percentage Type Category Quantity New media (%) Traditional media Male 252 70.19 Notification by others Gender Female 143 29.81 22.78% 10-30 98 24.81 Age 31-40 102 25.82 41.27% composition 41-50 97 24.56
Above 50 98 24.81 High school or secondary 178 45.06 school Education College or background 162 41.01 35.95% undergraduate Master's degree 36 9.11 Doctoral degree 19 4.81 As can be seen from Figure 4, 41.27% of the Household Rural household 286 72.41 respondents interviewed obtain the information of registration City account 109 27.59 emergencies by new media; 33.95% from traditional Wage income 129 32.66 media and the remaining 22.78% from other people, Family Agricultural 258 62.32 income income which has clearly demonstrated the important role source Capital property played by new media in the transmission of 8 2.03 income emergency information.
It can be seen from Table 1 that the proportion Accuracy of Information Transmission with New of males participants is much higher than that of Media females, so it be concluded that males are more Although new media is characterized by fast actively engaged in emergencies; regarding the age speed, the accuracy of information transmission composition of participants, the largest proportion needs to be improved. This paper conducts the is the 31-40 age group while the proportion of the questionnaire survey to study whether the remaining 3 age groups are almost the same. information that participants receive from the new Therefore, it can be concluded that the 31-40 age media is consistent with the actual situation. The group is the high-risk group involved in emergencies; result is shown in Figure 5. from the educational background, the most significant proportion is those with high school or Figure 5. The authenticity of new media secondary school qualification, followed by college dissemination information or undergraduate. The overall trend is that the lower the education background, the higher the 80 participation; from the perspective of household 72 registration, the participation of people with rural 70 60 household registration is significantly greater than 60 that of urban household registration. One of the 50 possible reasons is the lack of public opinion 40 expression mechanism in rural areas so that 30 emergencies are more likely to occur; regarding the 26 source of family income, the participation 20 10 proportion of people depending on agricultural 5 income is much higher than those depending on 0 wage income and asset income. Exactly match More consistent Does not match Not at all
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It can be seen from Figure 5 that 26 participants Figure 6. The mood of the participating in the emergency believe that the information they people is affected by the new media receive from the new media is completely in line with the actual situation; 72 participants believe Very strong that most of the information is in line with the actual Strong situation; 60 participants think that the information 7.36% General is different from the situation; 5 participants think Weak 11.66% 25.77% Very weak that the information is completely different from the actual situation. Thus, it can be see that some fake news exist in the information disseminated by the 7.36% new media, which is likely to lead to the change of the psychological state of participants, eventually resulting in the intensification of the contradiction and the deterioration of the situation. Therefore, the management of new media should be strengthened to ensure the authenticity and accuracy of the 47.85% information disseminated by the new media. It can be seen from Figure 6 that 25.77% of the respondents believe that their emotions are PSYCHOLOGICAL ANTICIPATION AND GUIDING significantly affected by the new media; 47.85% MEASURES FOR PEOPLE INVOLVED IN believe that that the impact of new media is strong; EMERGENCIES UNDER NEW MEDIA 7.36% believe the impact is not significant; 11.66% COMMUNICATION believe the impact of new media is weak; and 7.36% believe the impact is very weak. It can be seen that Guiding Role of New Media Communication on the new media has a strong impact on the motions the Psychological Anticipation of People Involved in of people involved in emergencies and it can affect Emergencies their psychological status. Therefore, the When an emergency occurs, the information management of new media should be strengthened disseminated by the new media can directly affect and the function of new media should be used the psychological state of recipients. This study reasonably so that the new media can be used to studies the emotional change of people involved in disseminate right information in the event of emergencies under the influence of new media emergencies to maintain the social stability. communication, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 7. Strengthening the countermeasures for new media to guide people in emergencies
Independent regulatory agencies manage. Strengthen the management of new media to ensure the authenticity of information. Strengthen punishment.
Strengthen punishment. Give full play to the guiding Strengthening the role of new media and countermeasures of new media stabilize the participation of to guide people in emergencies the crowd. Strengthen the fairness of the news.
Develop a prevention Promptly intervene in the mechanism. emergency participants to prevent the situation from escalating. Psychological intervention mechanism at the time of formulation.
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Strengthening the Guidance of New Media for management of new media platform should be People Involved in Emergencies further strengthened to improve the authenticity As mentioned in the previous chapter, new and reliability of the report content. media can significantly affect the psychological (4) The report of new media on emergencies can status of people involved in emergencies. Therefore, significantly affect the psychological status and we should give full play to the guiding role of new emotions of participants and the guiding role of new media to guide people to maintain a good media on the psychological status of participants psychological status so that emergencies can should be enhanced from the perspective of gradually cool down and the social stability can be strengthening new media management, playing the maintained. Figure 7 illustrates the countermeasure guiding role of new media and timely perform for strengthening the guiding role of new media for psychological intervention of participants people involved in emergencies, mainly from the perspective of new media management, guiding role of new media and the psychological intervention of REFERENCES participants. People involved in emergencies are in Brooks, J., Holttum, S., & Lavender, A. (2010). an unstable psychological status and this Personality style, psychological adaptation and psychological situation is prone to leading to the anticipations of trainee clinical psychologists. escalation of the situation. Therefore, the new Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 9(4), 253- media should play a positive role against this 270. background to guide the psychology and emotions Deloache, J. S., Chiong, C., Sherman, K., Islam, N., of participants so as to stabilize and cool down the Vanderborght, M., & Troseth, G. L., Strouse, G. A., emergency. O’Doherty, K. (2010). Do babies learn from baby
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