Studying governmental communication on social media comparatively

Abstract

Nowadays, social media provides new and distinctive channels for interactions between public authorities and the public, notably to construct a public policy consensus. For instance, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, interactions between the government and the public in various countries have been acutely reflected through social media accounts. Although Twitter is the most commonly studied social medium, more research is needed to theoretically and empirically assess how different policy goals (e.g., transparency, accountability, information about the organization, updating on activities, promotion of open data resources, etc.) are linked to and achieved through the reliance on different platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WeChat, Twitch, or Instagram. Furthermore, there is still little knowledge about how basic principles of discourse quality (e.g., inclusiveness, argumentation, respect, etc.) take place in these various channels of communication. These aspects are crucial to enable citizens to build an informed consent and opinion about policymaking. For instance, the government’s social media discourse had a significant influence on the public’s social discourse about vaccination and citizens’ willingness to adopt certain behaviors. Comparative research is needed for the analysis of the interplay between government discourse on social media and the broader public behaviors. This would enable research to improve the validity and transferability of existing findings beyond a single social media platform. Another important area of comparative research includes the discussion about whether there exist signs of centralisation and professionalization of social media communication across countries, for example through the use of policy documents regulating how governmental employees (e.g., secretaries and ministers) should act on social media. Here, existing research tends to be heavily focused on Western states, thus maybe underestimating cross-national variation in government communication.

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