Government Engagement via New Media

I work for a local government agency in Virginia and it never came to my mind as to whether they use any forms of new media to connect and engage with the local community. I was intrigued by this week’s question regarding government engagement, so I went on to the agency’s website and their social media pages to find out. Turns out, they do, but I do see a loss of communication and ways for the agency to leverage their use of new media — whether it be sharing information that matters most to the local residents or informing residents of their rights to vote.

At its core, government’s role is to serve public interests and inform citizens of their rights and responsibilities. I can see that it is therefore highly beneficial for the government to adopt new media and leverage its fast delivery and massive reach to engage citizens. Think about the impact of new media on the 2016 presidential campaign. It really has changed how we normally perceive political campaigns should be run.

So to answer this week’s question in a roundabout way, I do not use new media to engage with the government. However, if new media is defined in a broad sense, where it encompasses all content that is available on-demand through the Internet, then I would describe my level of engagement being on the receiver end, namely, only as “information consumer”. Primarily on information where I feel obligated to stay in the know. Most recently, I was looking up for information pertaining to laws and regulations on a government’s website for my tea business as well as filling out surveys sent to my email inbox. In this regard, I do appreciate how new media has enabled the government to spread out messages to the public, allowing people to access information online instantly.

Questions for the guest speaker:

1. In the 2017 Public Sector Digital Communications Trends Report by Granicus, it indicates that over 80 percent of government employees use Facebook and Twitter as primary social media platforms. With Facebook being labeled as the platform for Fake News due to the 2016 presidential campaign, what should government organizations be mindful of when using Facebook as a communication channel with the public?
2. What is the greatest challenge facing government organizations when it comes to shifting from traditional to digital engagement strategy?