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Working version below
Title
What is the role of social media in local government communications?
Introduction
The public sector communications environment has typically been characterised by Grunig and Hunt’s public information model, where the priority has been one-way dissemination of information to the organisation’s publics.
The development of social media tools, such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, image and video sharing services, over the past five years presents a challenge to this characterisation.
Social media gives the opportunity for publics to communicate more frequently and more effectively with other members of the same public, other publics and with government bodies themselves.
This change could be argued as moving government communications to a model similar to Grung and Hunt’s two-way symmetric model of public relations, at least in terms of two-way communications taking place. However it is debatable whether this shift extends to the more attitudinal aspects of the two-way symmetric model. Has social media led to a genuine desire for mutual understanding between governments and their publics, or is it just another channel through which dialogue can take place but control is strived for?
It could also be argued that this shift has change the issues management context for governments; issues can reach a tipping point much quicker than before. This presents challenges for government bodies in terms of issues monitoring and management.
My main job is as Head of Marketing and PR at a large unitary local authority in Kent. I also have an interest in social media as I write a popular marketing and PR blog and have developed social media communications campaigns in the public and private sectors. This topic allows me to explore an area that interests me greatly, is relevant to my employers (also my sponsors!) and, I believe, will be beneficial to local government communicators.
Aim
My aim is to research the role that social media can play in local government communications.
I will investigate existing social media case studies in local government communications , survey attitudes among those working in local government communications, interview leading local government communicators and social media specialists from outside the local government sector.
Through the combination of quantitative data and qualitative insight from these activities I will answer the research question posed.
List of tasks
- literature search and reading
- literature review and web research for other sources including relevant secondary research data
- define scope of local government comms and social media
- set up wiki to use as central public repository for project data and to use to write sections of the final report
Survey of communicators:
- set up survey (eg Surveymonkey or similar site)
- source list/s of all local government communications managers
- email out (include offer of research findings as incentive)
- chase email
- close survey and analyse results
Specialist interviews:
- identify key interviewees who can add useful perspective/challenge to my research – to ensure that the outcomes from my project take account of latest thinking in social media, not just from a local government perspective - such interviewees could also be leading bloggers, social media exponents in the private sector or industry analysts
- set up telephone interviews
- write interview guides
- conduct interviews (recorded)
- transcribe interviews
- analyse and extract key information
Methodology
My methodology comprises a combination of literature review and primary research (questionnaire, case studies) .
A key limitation of this approach is that it risks being focused too internally on existing practice, thus failing to identify future roles for social media in local government communications. However this limitation can be mitigated through primary research with specialist interviewees who can help provide external insight.
The survey of local government communications managers, looking at existing practice and attitudes to the topic will be limited by the response rate achieved. There are approximately 500 councils and a number of existing mailing lists that can be used to email contacts at these councils, but assuming a 10% response rate the sample size will be relatively small. This limitation will be reduced through incentivising response (offering to share research findings) and attempting to reach this group through multiple routes (eg CIPR LG group, LGA, IdEA) and deduping responses by email address.
The choice of case studies risks biasing the outcomes from the report as I intend to only consider a small number of case studies. However I will use these to demonstrate and expand on key points supporting selected recommendations made, rather than to justify all the recommendations made in the project.
Bibliography
The information sources I will use during the project will probably include a mix of online resources, social media and academic literature (primarily journals as there are few books on the topic specifically, although some reference may be made to books on social media generally).
The areas that I will need to research literature for are:
• public relations theory
• local government public relations
• social media and impact on public relations theory
Online resources identified so far are shared here:
http://del.icio.us/simonwakeman/%22cipr%2Bpersonal%2Bproject%22
Tools used for researching academic texts will include EBSCO, CIPR website and Questia.