Can government’s presence on social media stimulate citizens’ online political participation? Investigating the influence of transparency,trust, and responsiveness

This paper empirically investigates the association of quality information provided by a government agency on social media and citizen’s online political participation. It further answers the why and how questions regarding the existence of this relationship by examining the mediating influence of transparency, trust, and responsiveness. The data was collected from 388 followers of the social media platforms of a government agency i.e. Punjab Food Authority and the findings of the analysis were obtained using structural equation modeling technique. The results reveal that the agency’s provision of quality information on social media was significantly related to perceived transparency, trust in agency, perceived responsiveness, and citizens’ online political participation. Moreover, the results show that perceived transparency mediates the relationship between agency’s provision of quality information on social media and citizens’ trust in agency. Additionally, trust in agency was an insignificant predictor and perceived responsiveness was a negative predictor of citizens online political participation, Also, trust in agency and perceived responsiveness suppressed the relationship between agency’s provision of quality information on social media and citizens’ online political participation. This study aims to bring awareness and contribution to the body of knowledge about the governmental use of social media and its resulting benefits since in developing countries like Pakistan the research in this area is sparse. Further, it provides strategic and practical suggestions to agencies regarding advantages of utilizing social media in their communication with citizens.     

Citizen–government collaboration on social media: The case of Twitter in the 2011 riots in England

How social media can enable opportunities for collaboration between citizens and governments is an evolving issue in theory and practice. This paper examines the dynamic aspects of collaboration in the context of the 2011 riots in England. In August 2011, parts of London and other cities in England suffered from extensive disorder and even loss of human lives. Based on a dataset of 1746 posts by 81 local government Twitter accounts during or shortly after the riots, we explore how local authorities attempted to reduce the effects of the riots and support community recovery. Using Twitter's conversational and rapid update features, they produced a variety of informational and actionable messages with clear calls for offline or online action. In some cases, collective against the riots evolved in a mutual way: not only citizens were mobilized by local authorities, but also local authorities actively promoted actions initiated by citizens.     

Can AI communication tools increase legislative responsiveness and trust in democratic institutions?

Smart replies, writing enhancements, and virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence (AI) language technologies are becoming part of consumer products and everyday experiences. This study explores the opportunities and risks of using language-generating AI systems in politics to increase legislative responsiveness. Legislators receive a large volume of constituent communication and often cannot devote individual consideration and timely response to each. Here, AI language technologies may allow legislators to process constituent communication more efficiently. For example, AI writing tools can suggest reply snippets when a staffer responds to a common concern. However, legislative human-AI collaboration could reduce constituent trust or undermine the representative process. In two experiments, we compared constituents' impressions of human-written legislative correspondence to correspondences partially or fully generated by GPT-3, a state-of-the-art language model. Our results suggest that legislative correspondence generated by AI with human oversight may be received favorably and increase constituent trust compared to generic auto-responses that busy legislators may employ. However, poorly performing AI language technologies may damage confidence in the legislator. Our findings highlight the potential and risks of introducing AI-mediated communication to the representation process. We discuss the importance of disclosure, transparency, and maintaining human-in-the-loop accountability for political deployments of AI language technologies.     

How is information shared across the boundaries of government agencies? An e-Government case study

This paper explores how information is shared across the vertical and horizontal boundaries of government agencies. Different types of information sharing are identified and discussed in terms of their strengths and encountered challenges. Centralized types of information sharing are found as a primary strategy adopted to facilitate interagency information sharing in the two dimensions. Particularly, influential determinants from type comparisons and government agencies are identified and discussed regarding what agencies may take into considerations when selecting certain types of information sharing. While there is no single type of information sharing that can satisfy all the needs and concerns of government agencies, most agencies still simultaneously employ several types of information sharing in different circumstances. A competition-and-cooperation relationship exists among the different types of information sharing in both dimensions. The paper suggests that a balance between centralized and decentralized types of information sharing should be achieved to obtain advantages and diminish disadvantages. The similarities and differences between the types in the two dimensions are also compared and discussed. Lastly, the conclusion outlines the contribution and limitation of the current research and suggests future studies of the current work.     

The media–terrorism symbiosis: a case study of Mumbai attacks, 2008

There has been a long-standing debate among scholars, policy-makers, politicians and journalists about the relationship between terrorism and the news media for whom terrorism is usually a newsworthy story. A primary focus of the debate is to investigate the media–terrorism symbiotic relationship. This paper explores this relationship through a qualitative, thematic analysis of how British TV news channels covered a major terrorist incident after the 9/11 – Mumbai attacks 2008. It examines the interpretive theme of ‘awe, terror and chaos’, and how it is selected, prioritized and developed in the presentation of the events which spread over a period of more than 72 hours. Additionally, it considers the kind of political and organizational factors that might shape or modify the editorial decision-making processes and ideological assumptions that may lie behind such coverage. Ultimately, the study maintains that British TV news outlets play an important role in mediating terrorist messages and focus primarily on images of terror and violence during the coverage of Mumbai attacks. While there are key differences between public and commercial TV news in the style and presentation of coverage, with the former being more careful in approach, the news channels concentrate on televising death and injury and the propagation of chaos and confusion in the affected city.     

The role of emotions for citizen engagement via social media – A study of police departments using twitter

Police departments increasingly use social media for enhancing their relationships with citizens. However, little is known about how specific characteristics of police-initiated messages affect whether and to what extent citizens engage with the former. This study looks at 11 large police departments using Twitter in Germany. Based on a multimethod approach, it explores the effect of content type and two emotional elements (i.e. arousal and valence) of tweets on different dimensions of citizen engagement. The latter is measured as observable online behavioral responses to police tweets in form of likes, comments, and retweets. The results suggest that emotional arousal (i.e. the emotional intensity of a tweet) plays a key role in triggering all forms of citizen engagement, while emotional valence (more specifically, the negativity of a tweet) largely shows no effect. Moreover, the impact of content type (informative versus interactive) varies across the different engagement dimensions.     

Can we prioritise which databases to search? A case study using a systematic review of frozen shoulder management

Background

Systematic reviews risk producing biased conclusions if a comprehensive search to identify eligible studies is not undertaken, but little evidence exists to guide prioritisation of databases to search when resources are limited.

Objectives

A systematic review examining interventions for managing frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis) was used to investigate the performance of bibliographic databases in identifying the included studies, the smallest combination of databases required to retrieve all included studies, and the performance of the searches themselves.

Methods

We calculated the yield of included studies from each of 15 databases, and the recall and precision of each search strategy. We investigated differences between the presence of a record in a database and its retrieval.

Results

Thirty of 31 studies were present in at least one database. Yields of individual databases ranged from 0% to 90% (median 23%). Two combinations of databases identified all 30 studies: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and Science Citation Index (SCI); or CENTRAL, MEDLINE and PreMEDLINE.

Conclusions

In a systematic review of a range of interventions used to manage frozen shoulder, at least two databases and reference checking were required to retrieve all included studies, but searching for future reviews should not be restricted.     

ADONIS: a document delivery solution? A case study

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Does government social media promote users' information security behavior towards COVID-19 scams? Cultivation effects and protective motivations

Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak and offering COVID-19-related scams to unsuspecting people. Currently, there is a lack of studies that focus on protecting people from COVID-19-related cybercrimes. Drawing upon Cultivation Theory and Protection Motivation Theory, we develop a research model to examine the cultivation effect of government social media on peoples' information security behavior towards COVID-19 scams. We employ structural equation modeling to analyze 240 survey responses collected from social media followers of government accounts. Our results suggest that government social media account followers' participation influences their information security behavior through perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy, and response efficacy. Our study highlights the importance of government social media for information security management during crises.     

Public service operational efficiency and blockchain – A case study of Companies House,UK

Despite the increasing interest and exploration of the use of blockchain technology in public service organisations (PSOs), academic understanding of its transformative impact on the operational excellence of PSOs remains limited. This study adopts an action design science research methodology to develop a proof of concept (POC) blockchain based application for Companies House, a government agency that is registering companies across UK. The application addresses the operational challenges of Companies House as well as issues citizens face when accessing its services. We draw from the public value framework proposed by Twizeyimana and Andersson (2019) and demonstrate the significance of the emerging blockchain technology in relation to their democratic practices based on six dimensions. We further discuss the related challenges and barriers for its implementation and evaluate the POC with the stakeholders of Companies House. We also present an illustrative case study, where we explored the appropriateness of the POC in relation to the draft legislation, “Registration of Overseas Entities and Beneficial Owners” (ROEBO) bill which proposes the introduction of a register of the beneficial owners of overseas legal entities that own real estate in the UK. Our research is one of the few studies that will provide in-depth empirical insights about the relationship between blockchain and operational excellence of PSOs.     

A rules‐based study of television's role in the construction of social reality

A qualitative analysis of one couple's conversational uses of mediated content is presented. Observations spanned a two‐year period. Data were categorized according to usage type and then examined from Lull's (1981) rules persective.     

How relevant is the predictive power of the h-index? A case study of the time-dependent Hirsch index

The h-index has been shown to have predictive power. Here I report results of an empirical study showing that the increase of the h-index with time often depends for a long time on citations to rather old publications. This inert behavior of the h-index means that it is difficult to use it as a measure for predicting future scientific output.     

Displacement or complementarity? Assessing the relationship between social media and public library usage in the U.S., South Korea,and Singapore

The relevancy of public libraries is often called into question, with some saying that library services have been or will be displaced by, among other things, new media such as social media. This study tested this displacement hypothesis with survey data collected from three nations (the U.S.: N = 879; South Korea: N = 700; and Singapore: N = 987). Ordinal regressions were used to investigate the relationship between the use of social media and nine public library services, taking into account individual demographic differences. The results show that for all three nations, social media use has significant complementary relationships with all nine library services examined. Computer and information literacy training showed the largest effect size. However, signs of displacement effects were observed in the odds ratio statistics, particularly among daily social media users and in reference services, library visits, and time spent in the library, suggesting that where displacement is concerned, these areas warrant extra attention.     

Are we “out of the box” yet? A case study and critique of managerial metaphors of change

A cultural‐critical approach is used to explore dominant and alternative ideologies of change reflected in the metaphors of a retail‐based management staff. The case study reveals the managers as change agents were well versed in the corporate call to “get out of the box, “yet reflected a less transformational vision of change in their own discourse. Traveling metaphors used by the store‐level managers indicated a process orientation to change, but one that severely limited discussion about other possible routes toward the desired end. Suppressed alternative metaphors speaking to the personal losses and frustrations associated with change are exposed and validated in this analysis. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Towards cyberactivism 2.0? Understanding the use of social media and other information technologies for political activism and social movements

Information technologies are increasingly important for political and social activism. In particular, web 2.0 tools and social media applications have recently played a significant role in influencing government decision making and shaping the relationships between governments, citizens, politicians, and other social actors. After the Arab Spring and the uprisings that have led to significant political changes in Egypt, Tunisia, and Iran, commentators argue that information technologies have the potential to strengthen social movements and ultimately transform society. However, this influence is not new. There were movements in the 90s, using the new technologies of e-mail and websites, which were able to gather significant social attention and generate political pressure. Based on three Mexican social and political movements that span close to 20 years, this article identifies key similarities and differences in the use of information technologies and proposes a framework to understand the evolution of cyberactivism. Initially, activists used information technologies to promote a movement's main ideas and gain global support. More recently, a single tool or application, such as Twitter, has been the technological basis for certain social and political movements. However, there is a trend towards a more integrated use of social media tools and applications, generating what could be called cyberactivism 2.0. In addition, there are some distinguishable stages in the development of social protests using information technologies; this evolutionary model seems to be useful to understand very different social and political movements using very different levels of technological sophistication.     

Does an image facilitate the sharing of negative news on social media? An experimental investigation

Negative news on social media is always disseminated promptly and widely which leads to negative economic and social outcomes that render a practical research agenda necessary to understand user sharing decisions. Moreover, news posted on social media usually includes images, but little is known about the role of such images in shaping user decisions to share negative news. To fill this gap, the humans' affective–cognitive model of information processing (HACIP) was developed to explore the effects of images on the sharing of negative news and to investigate the contingent role of images in the sharing decision. To test the model and hypotheses, a scenario-based online experiment was conducted, which yielded 285 valid responses. Analysis results indicate that images in negative news induce users' negative emotion and arousal, which influence their sharing decision. Further, the presence of images strengthens the effect of negative emotion and weakens the effect of information uniqueness. Thus, this study contributes to the literature by identifying the distinct role of images in information processing and by proposing a brand-new framework to explore user sharing of negative news.     

“Not like that,not for that,not by them”: social media affordances of critique

This paper has two objectives: to explicate the sociotechnical conditions that facilitate critique on social media platforms (specifically: Tumblr); and to operationalize a “working theory” from Foucault’s conceptualization of critique. We analyze resistant practices observed (in ethnographic study) in a Not Safe For Work (NSFW) community on Tumblr, arguing that the potential for critique arises there at the intersection of platform architecture and use cultures. Specifically, we show how critique emerges from shared practices of ethics, most visibly enacted through what we call voluntary vulnerability and paying it forward. This potential for critique is arguably at risk with Tumblr’s recent NSFW ban.