Three important changes in public opinion work

(Baonghean) - Grasping, investigating, and researching public opinion (also known as social work) is one of the fields of activity of the Propaganda sector, aiming to help Party committees and authorities at all levels grasp developments in ideology and mood of the people.

Survey of public opinion on the implementation of Resolution 4 of the Central Committee (term XI and XII) among party members and people in Hoa Hieu ward (Thai Hoa). Photo: Ly Minh

The main task of social work is to observe, grasp, investigate, synthesize, and research the situation of public opinion (including opinions, thoughts, aspirations, attitudes... of all classes of people), forecast trends and advise on proposals and recommendations for handling social issues for Party committees and authorities at all levels, on that basis, contributing to the development and improvement of the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's laws, and local regulations.

In recent years, the ideological situation and social mood have become more diverse and complicated due to the development of socio-economy; due to the negative side of the market economy with many new conflicts of interest arising; due to the explosion of information technology with the penetration of many information channels, many unorthodox ideological streams...

Along with that, the intellectual level of the people is increasingly improved, democracy is expanded, the demands of the people on the leadership and management of the Party and the State are increasingly strict. However, the implementation of social work in recent times still has some shortcomings such as the awareness of some local Party committees about social work is still inadequate; social work information is sometimes not timely, the quality and predictability are not high; the team doing social work is still small, the expertise is still limited...

Based on that situation, the Secretariat issued Conclusion 100-KL/TW to strengthen the Party's leadership and direction over social work, and at the same time, to make social work more effectively serve the cause of innovation, construction and development of the country. After more than 1 year, the implementation of Conclusion 100-KL/TW in Nghe An has created positive changes in social work, contributing to improving the effectiveness of leadership and management of the province.

Officials of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Hung Dao Commune (Hung Nguyen) exchange and grasp public opinion. Photo: PV

The first change is the significant change in the awareness of Party committees at all levels in the work of social work. From being hesitant or indifferent, up to now, social work information has become a regular information channel of most Party committees to serve the work of leadership and management. Every month, or when there are sudden complicated developments in social work, the Propaganda Department at all levels reports on the ideological and social work situation in the area to serve the Party committees at their level and send them to the Propaganda Department at higher levels. In some localities, Party committee leaders regularly answer questions of public concern at district conferences, such as Quynh Luu, Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan districts...

At the provincial level, in addition to monthly situation summary reports, when there are complicated problems or incidents, the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department always grasps the mood and thoughts of the people to help the Provincial Party Committee have more information in the process of coming up with solutions. For example, the complicated religious incident in Nghe An recently was an issue of great concern to public opinion, so before each new development, the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department always collects and synthesizes information to report to the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee.

Along with that, the force implementing social DL work has been consolidated and strengthened. Currently, at the provincial level and all districts, cities and towns, specialized departments have been arranged to implement social DL work. For the first time, Nghe An has deployed the construction of a network of social DL collaborators from the province to the district, with the task of collecting and synthesizing social DL information directly from the grassroots.

These are individuals carefully selected from all walks of life, who are prestigious in the community, have political courage and a spirit of dedication. Up to now, the network of social work collaborators in Nghe An has been basically completed with 35 provincial-level collaborators, more than 450 district-level collaborators and equivalent (each unit has 15-20 collaborators). Thanks to that, social work has become more systematic and effective.

In addition, the quality of social DL information has been significantly improved. The network of collaborators has provided quite comprehensive and timely information on developments in the ideological and social DL situation in the province. The organization of social DL surveys using sociological methods has also received more attention. In 2017, two social DL surveys on the content of Party building and new rural construction were conducted. These initial results will be a significant driving force for more effective implementation of Conclusion 100-KL/TW in the current situation.

Minh Ly