Identifying active hot-issue communicators and subgroup identifiers: Examining the situational theory of problem solving

This study used the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) to examine communication behaviors of the publics formed around a government policy issue attracting intense media coverage in a Chinese society. Results of surveying 748 participants online support the utility of STOPS to identify the hot-issue public with active communication from the general population in a Chinese context. Results of examining the two cross-situational variables’ impact on the situational variables (program recognition, constraint recognition, involvement recognition, and referent criterion) indicate that party identity serves as a better identifier of subgroups of the hot-issue public than trust in the government. Theoretical implications for STOPS model in a hot-issue situation and the composition of hot-issue publics as well as practical implications for effective communication targeting the active public arising from the controversy are discussed.