Note: This article contains spoilers

In "Hot Search", when Chen Miao (played by Zhou Dongyu), the editor-in-chief of the self-media giant "Wonderful World", appears, it is difficult not to think of a certain person in real life who once had millions of fans and an advertisement can A self-media account selling for RMB 300,000 to 400,000 (applied for automatic cancellation in 2019). Chen Miao's experience is even somewhat similar to hers.

Chen Miao comes from a single-parent family and has lived with her mother since she was a child. After graduating from college, Chen Miao first worked in a newspaper. Later, in the wave of self-media, she started a business with her senior He Yan (played by Song Yang) and jointly opened a self-media account "Wonderful World". In a short period of time, she became The leading figure in the female emotional circuit, with millions of fans, almost 100,000+.

"Hot Search" Poster

Why did "Wonderful World" rise so quickly? From the very beginning of the film, this is vividly reflected through the editorial department's manipulation of a topic and its response to the subsequent public opinion triggered by the topic.

Chen Miao (played by Zhou Dongyu)

Chen Miao received a breaking video. In the video, a girl named Zhang Xiaosui (played by Zhang Yuwen) in a training school was suspected of "bullying" another female classmate and pushed her down the stairs. Netizens have conducted human flesh searches to find relevant information about "bullies". Although Chen Miao didn't know the full story of this incident, she still planned to make a topic about campus bullying, and came up with an eye-catching title, "Lingchi Sees No Blood: A Real-life Illustrated Book of Girls' Bullying" .

Zhang Xiaosui (played by Zhang Yuwen)

He Yan questioned the topic selection and hoped to be more cautious before knowing the truth, but Chen Miao, who is king of traffic, insisted on pushing forward. During the topic selection meeting, she had "a lot of witty words", "Don't ignore hot topics, God cannot tolerate it", "Capture the most extreme clips, and satisfy the lowest emotions"...

Chen Miao once pursued the principle of traffic first

Sure enough, the topic went viral, and many netizens cursed Zhang Xiaosui with vicious messages. Later, news came that Zhang Xiaosui committed suicide by jumping off a building, and her life and death were uncertain. The direction of public opinion immediately changed, with many marketing accounts like "Wonderful World" being criticized as murderers.

At the forefront of public opinion, "Wonderful World" is quite passive. Do you want to continue to push tweets? Do you want to apologize? Just when the editorial department was at a loss what to do, Chen Miao thought of a "clever" response - to interview Zhang Xiaosui's mother, let her accuse online violence on camera, and use the video as an article pushed that day with the theme of opposing online violence. The material of the article points the tragedy of Zhang Xiaosui's jumping off the building to cyber violence, and puts the responsibility on netizens. "Wonderful World" stands on the moral high ground and escapes gracefully, and Chen Miao is proud of it.

However, the so-called "bullying" of Zhang Xiaosui was not what was shown in the surveillance at all, and the main reason why she committed suicide by jumping off a building was not the comments of netizens. Behind the Zhang Xiaosui incident, a shocking sexual assault case was involved.

What Chen Miao wrote is not what the truth looks like

Wang Shimin, a wealthy local businessman and owner of the Hengshi Group, has long been conducting "concubine selection" in the name of setting up training schools and subsidizing poor students. Many female students have been victimized, and Zhang Xiaosui is one of them. After being raped by Wang Shimin, she sought help from the principal of the training school, tried to call the police, and posted messages online asking for help, but was suppressed one by one.

In order to prevent Zhang Xiaosui from "causing trouble", Yue Peng (played by Yuan Hong), a senior executive of Hengshi Group, took the initiative and wanted to use public opinion war to discredit Zhang Xiaosui first. They first "created" a conflict between Zhang Xiaosui and her classmates, took a video of Zhang Xiaosui questioning her classmates, and spread it as "campus bullying", making Zhang Xiaosui's speech no longer credible. Even if she claims to be bullied in the future, No one wants to believe that a wealthy businessman rapes someone.

Yue Peng (played by Yuan Hong), a minion of a wealthy businessman

The investor of "Wonderful World" is Wang Shimin, and Chen Miao also obtained the video of Zhang Xiaosui "bullying" his classmates from Yue Peng. Yue Peng deceived Chen Miao: Zhang Xiaosui was a problem student who smeared the chairman everywhere and was involved in campus bullying... Chen Miao chose the topic without much thought, and she was taken advantage of by Yue Peng.

Chen Miao, who puts traffic first, is not a "conscientious person". Although she was lost in the rush for traffic, when she learned the truth, she firmly stood on the side of justice. Even if she broke with capital and lost her "Wonderful World", she We must also seek justice for Zhang Xiaosui.

Chen Miao has launched a public opinion war, and the wealthy businessman will definitely not sit still and wait for death. "Hot Search" officially enters the main axis of the plot: clearly showing the audience how the online public opinion war works, how the dazzling hot searches are created, and what kind of calculations may be hidden behind these hot searches. The screenwriter of "Hot Search" must have worked hard to study communication theories. The movie presents us with detailed and specific examples, such as "agenda setting", "spiral of silence", "anti-silence spiral", "magic bullet theory" and other communication theories What is going on.

For example, when Chen Miao revealed the truth about Zhang Xiaosui's victimization, the wealthy businessmen started to throw out the rumor that Zhang Xiaosui was a "compensated dating girl." recording, the trend became "immortal dance" and "mother sells daughter for money"; Chen Miao seized on the fact that the wealthy businessman had a relationship with Zhang Xiaosui to make a fuss, and the wealthy businessman directed public opinion towards the "scandal"; Chen Miao finally found Another victim was announced to meet at ten o'clock. The wealthy businessman immediately found the victim and put pressure on her, causing Chen Miao's counterattack to fall short. In the end, under the pressure of public opinion from the wealthy businessman, Chen Miao himself became a cyberviolent. victim……

The audience will feel extremely close to many details of this public opinion battle. Not only because "Hot Search" uses subjective shots and fast editing to give the audience an immersive feeling of browsing Weibo, but also because as a People who eat melons, we may have participated in countless hot searches of one kind or another. Our emotions are always easily aroused by various trends. One second we may send an angry and vulgar message, and the next second we may be on another hot search. Search the bottom to complain about online violence...

The sense of déjà vu that comes from scrolling through Weibo, people who eat melons are more or less involved in creating hot searches.

"Hot Search" "kills two birds with one stone". Through public opinion offensive and defensive battles, it popularizes the hot search creation process and the details of public opinion control to the public, and further reveals the plight of women. This communication course is cruel. It uses how public opinion can discredit, trample, and harm a woman as an example. In the era of highly developed self-media, the powerful classes are familiar with using the media they control to set agendas and manipulate public opinion. The original plight of women in a patriarchal society can easily be transferred to the Internet, and lead to increased harm, such as sluts. Shaming, victim culpability, etc.

Victims are instead stigmatized

"Hot Search" is Xin Yukun's new film after a lapse of six years. It is Xin Yukun's transformation in commercial genre films. The film captures topics and hot spots, and also has the feeling of the weak defeating the strong. It has faded away from Xin Yukun's "Heart". The strong authoriality and stylized colors in Labyrinth and Silence. One of the few things in the movie that still retains Xin Yukun's "gloomy metaphor" feature is the portrayal of wealthy businessmen in the movie. Before the end of the movie, the wealthy businessman never showed his face, either in profile, in silhouette, or directly in black, accurately conveying to the audience the unfathomable, infinite evil, and terrifying nature of the "mastermind behind the scenes." After he was criminally detained, his face was finally seen in trending searches - the face of an ordinary older man. This is actually what all powers look like. Majesty comes from power. Without blessing, it is so mediocre and ugly.

There is almost no positive face of the wealthy businessman in the movie

In order to achieve the goal of "killing two birds with one stone", "Hot Search" inevitably sacrifices some logic. For example, Chen Miao transformed from a typical marketing account manager who focused on traffic to a "feminist fighter" who risked everything in order to help women get justice. Her transformation lacked convincing basis. In real life, the former big V who has canceled his official account is still a top player in the field of micro-short dramas in terms of traffic. Where can there be so many "prodigal sons"?

Chen Miao's turn was a bit sudden

The answers given by "Hot Search" to the hot search chaos are also somewhat idealistic. Everyone understands what the movie says, but it may not be effective in improving reality. We all know that the chaos in hot searches is partly due to the fact that many marketing accounts are too unscrupulous and bad and do anything to get traffic; the other is partly due to netizens’ lack of media literacy, being too impulsive and emotional, and unknowingly was taken advantage of. So the movie appeals: Public opinion is a double-edged sword. It can help people, but it can also hurt people. Everyone should be more sensible.

How many netizens can "Hot Search" touch and wake up? The author personally is not too optimistic. The movie has not found the crux of the hot search chaos. Why does public opinion change direction so easily? Why are netizens’ emotions easily stirred up? In the final analysis, it was because of the lack of truth and because authoritative and credible voices did not appear in the first place. Just like the famous rumor formula says, “Rumor = (the importance of the event) Rumors will take over the magpie's nest, and all kinds of rumors will grow. Every time a bit of news is released, public opinion will follow the wind like grass on the wall.

Therefore, the fundamental solution to the hot search chaos is for authoritative and credible news organizations to provide enough truth. In the era of self-media, mainstream news organizations are not without value. On the contrary, they are more important than ever. However, news organizations should not be just mouthpieces and should not be trapped by various prohibitions. Instead, they should be given sufficient reporting space and effectively exert public opinion. The role of supervision is to intervene immediately in any major incident to satisfy the public's thirst for the truth.

In "Hot Search", in order to advance the plot, news organizations were directly absent. Almost only the self-media was "interviewing", "reporting" and "investigating" throughout the whole process. In fact, at any point in this public opinion war, if an authoritative news organization intervenes in the report, it will play a role in removing fuel from the cauldron and guiding public opinion to a large extent.

In short, in the noisy public opinion field, news organizations cannot be absent. They should intervene quickly to reach the truth. Some netizens should stop throwing dirt on news organizations and not let some obviously credible media "lose their trust" in public opinion. Otherwise, once the truth is absent and marketing accounts dominate public opinion, the chaos in "Hot Search" will It's really possible.