Study on the Temporal and Spatial Evolution Characteristics of Chinese Public's Cognition and Attitude to "Double Reduction" Policy Based on Big Data

The "double reduction" policy is a policy innovation of China's comprehensive education reform to build a high-quality education system. The public's cognition and attitude toward it are of great significance to its actual implementation. A total of 98396 texts related to "double reduction" collected from Sina-Weibo by web crawler technology are investigated to explore the public's cognition and attitude towards the "double reduction" policy as well as its spatio-temporal evolution characteristics. Guided by life cycle theory, the evolution of the public's attitude is studied by sentiment analysis based on the ERINE algorithm and DUTIR. Topics are selected with the adoption of TF-IDF and LDA models to perform spatio-temporal evolution of public cognition and analyze group differences. The results are as follows: the evolution of public concern about the "double reduction" policy is phased and the period of high incidence is closely related to time nodes such as policy release, the new school term, and holidays. There are temporal and spatial differences in the evolution of public attitudes between different stages and groups. Although the public holds a relatively negative attitude, with more information about the "double reduction" policy available, the public's attitude is gradually easing. Topics of public concern vary in different periods, and different groups show different emotional attitudes and have distinctive evolution characteristics of cognitive themes. Compared with other age groups, teenagers pay more attention to topics related to their studies and life. The government's official micro-blog not only shoulders the responsibility of publicizing relevant policies, but also pays close attention to the implementation of relevant policies around the country. The influential groups hold a relatively firm attitude and stable emotions and often can orient public opinions. The regional attention to the "double reduction" policy is positively correlated with the level of local economic development. The research results can help government departments learn about the public's cognition and attitude towards the "double reduction" policy to provide decision-making support, and serve as an important basis for solving existing contradictions and promoting the effective implementation of policies. (c) 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc.