Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, official social media became a critical channel for the public to obtain pandemic information. No matter the positive function or negative effect of information dissemination, it involves the public’s risk perception and behavior. This study was designed to contribute to the existing research on how official social media information quality (IQ) and risk perception (RP) affect preventive behavior (PB) and continued use behavior (CB) of official social media during the first wave of COVID-19. Methods: The required data were extracted from a national online survey of the Chinese Mainland during March 24–30 2020, a random sample was asked to participate in the survey (n = 666). Data analysis was performed using regression analysis, structural equation modeling, mediating effect analysis, and one-way ANOVA analysis. Results: The results show that IQ (10.010 ± 3.568) has direct and indirect positive impact on PB (9.475 ± 3.571), and has a low significant positive indirect impact on CB (3.739 ± 1.566). The IQ has a significant positive impact on RP (β = 0.548), which show that there is no “risk perception paradox” in COVID-19. Furth more, this study also provides new evidence indicating that RP mediates the relationship between IQ and PB. According to the region, gender, age and annual income, and there are significant differences in PB and CB. Conclusion: The study findings have remarkable implications for improving the information quality and public behaviors. Too high or too low level of risk perception is not conducive to pandemic prevention and control. Official social media should indirectly affect information flow through the reasonable supply of pandemic information and constantly improve the quality of pandemic information to avoid public’s undue panic and excessive health concerns during this ongoing outbreak and subsequent national public emergency events.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that social media can impact society both positively (e.g., keeping citizens connected and informed) and negatively (e.g., the deliberate spreading of misinformation). This study aims to examine the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between official social media accounts and the infodemic, experienced during the first wave of COVID-19 in China. A theoretical model is proposed to examine how official social media accounts affected the infodemic during this period. In total, 1398 questionnaire responses were collected via WeChat and Tencent QQ, two leading Chinese social media platforms. Data analysis was conducted using Partial Lease Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), moderation effect analysis, and mediation effect analysis. Results indicate that the Information Quality (IQ) of Official social media accounts (β = −0.294, p < 0.001) has a significant negative effect on the infodemic. Mediation effect analysis revealed that both social support (β = −0.333, 95% Boot CI (−0.388, −0.280)) and information cascades (β = −0.189, 95% Boot CI (−0.227, −0.151)) mediate the relationship between IQ and the infodemic. Moderation effect analysis shows that private social media usage (F = 85.637, p < 0.001) positively moderates the relationship between IQ and the infodemic, while health literacy has a small negative moderation effect on the relationship between IQ and the infodemic. Our findings show that, in the context of Chinese media, official social media accounts act as a major source of information for influencing the infodemic through increasing social support and reducing information cascades for citizens.

Understanding the underlying mechanism of individual’s opinion on haze is important to govern public opinion on haze, and the major question of exiting research is that it has not yet explored what factors and how do they affect individual’s opinion on haze. This study aimed to uncover the underlying influencing mechanism of individual’s opinion on haze. This study conducted Partial Least Square Structural equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the impacts of media’s factor (i.e. agenda setting, media accountability, and information credibility), governmental factor (i.e. policy instrument) and psychological factor (i.e., social distance, spatial distance) on individual’s opinion on haze. Based on the Agenda Melding Theory and stakeholders (i.e., media, government, and resident), this study constructed a conceptual model, which is empirically examined by conducting questionnaire survey data of 973 residents in China. The results indicate that media’s factor (media accountability, information credibility), governmental factor (policy instrument), and psychological distance have significant positive direct impacts on individual’s opinion on haze. Furthermore, media’s factor (agenda setting) only has an indirect impact on individual’s opinion on haze through the mediation effects of information credibility. However, information credibility also had significant moderation effects on the relationship between psychological distance and individual’s opinion on haze. The moderation and mediation effects of information credibility indicated that it played a vital role in guiding individual’s opinion on haze. These findings suggest that further research is required on the interaction of stakeholders and that concerted efforts of different stakeholders to assist governing individual’s opinion on haze.

Enhancing the communication effect of government social media (GSM) is a key approach to building a service-oriented government. Based on the Information System Success Model and Dialogic Communications Theory, this study proposes a model that integrates information quality, operation system, interactive service, use strategy, and media accountability to estimate how GSM communication affects diffusion from the user perspective, which is empirically estimated by conducting online and offline questionnaire survey data of 1009 participants in China. Using the partial least squares structural equation model, the results show that GSM use strategy and media accountability positively affect GSM communication effect. Furthermore, the mediation analysis reveals that media accountability mediates the relationship between information quality, operation system, interactive service, and communication effect, indicating that media accountability played a critical role in enhancing GSM communication effect. This study offers a theoretical and empirical foundation for grasping GSM communication’s diffusion mechanism and improving public communication effectiveness on social media.