Communication Characteristics, Practical Dilemmas, and Governance Paths of Online Public Opinion in Universities in the Post-Truth Era

Abstract

In the post-truth era, the communication logic that prioritizes emotions over facts has profoundly reshaped the generation and evolution mechanisms of online public opinion in universities. Adopting the post-truth theory as an analytical framework, this paper systematically examines the new characteristics of online public opinion in universities across four dimensions: subject composition, content form, communication channel, and evolution path. It also reveals the practical dilemmas in current governance of such public opinion, including the cognitive dilemma where "facts give way to emotions," the structural dilemma of "circle barriers and echo chambers," the effectiveness dilemma of "delayed responses and rhetorical failures," and the value dilemma of "control-oriented mindset versus educational mission." The study proposes that universities should take measures from four aspects: technological empowerment, emotional governance, value guidance, and institutional reconstruction, so as to build a full-chain governance system encompassing "monitoring, empathy, guidance, and regulation," thereby achieving an organic integration of order maintenance in cyberspace and the fundamental task of fostering virtue and nurturing talents.