Understanding citizen engagement and concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic in China: a thematic analysis of government social media

Purpose In crises such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, governments need to act in time to lead citizens toward rational reactions and disclose information effectively to the public. This paper aims to understand the content published by the government and identify how citizen engagement relates to content type and emotional valence. Design/methodology/approach The grounded theory approach was adopted and nine types of content posted by the government were observed. The data were obtained from "People's Daily", an official Sina Weibo account representing the voice of the Chinese government, from January 3 to June 22 in 2020. Findings The analysis shows that information related to emotional support and social mobilization were the most reposted, while those mentioning immoral and illegal incidents were the most liked and commented. Also, it was found that positive posts tend to attract more likes, yet with fewer reposts than neutral posts. Originality/value The authors adopted thematic analysis and focused on the impact of post content and valence on user participation behavior. This study expands the existing literature. The government can improve crises management capability by learning about citizen engagement behaviors on social media.