Use of Social Media by Local Governments and its Organizational Factors

As governments increase their use of social media for public communication, many hold the expectation that these tools can help increase civic engagement and improve the quality of democracy. To understand if this is a mere expectation or accurately reflects the way social media is being used by governments, an empirical investigation was conducted, with two main goals: to understand how US local governments are actually using social media, that is, for what communication purposes they are using it (for this, three main purposes were proposed theoretically: Governance, Technocratic and Rhetoric); and to understand the internal organizational factors that explain the use of social media for these different purposes. Two different datasets were used for this investigation, one consisting of a qualitative analysis and coding of Facebook posts by local governments, and the other consisting of a broad survey answered by local government managers of five different departments (Mayor’s Office, Police, Finance, Community Development and Parks and Recreation). Results indicate that most departments are using social media for perfunctory purposes (Technocratic, for broadcast of information), but are not using it for more participatory, engagement purposes. As for the organizational factors, results indicate that some factors – such as legal obligation, positive attitudes towards social media and organizational guides for social media usage – positively affect most purposes of use, while other organizational factors – such as employee discretion – affect only certain purposes. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the contributions for the theory and practice of public administration, in particular regarding the use of social media and technology in government.