Social media : what positioning for the public administration ? The case of French urban comunities - Archive ouverte HAL
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2023

Social media : what positioning for the public administration ? The case of French urban comunities

David Huron
Grégory Spieth
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Résumé

The rise of social media is raising questions about their use in public administration. Social media are oriented towards the private sphere, making them an object in the same way as multi-actor governance networks. Klijn and Skelcher (2007) propose four conjectures. The incompatibility conjecture is based on the primacy of politics, and views social media as a threat. The complementarity conjecture presents social media as a means of enabling greater participation in the policy-making process and greater sensitivity to program implementation. The transitional conjecture postulates a broader evolution of forms of governance towards network relations. The instrumental conjecture sees social media as a powerful means by which dominant interests can achieve their objectives. Regarding academic research, there is no single dominant interest within public administrations, and that social networks are assessed differently in terms of their compatibility with the place of the user/customer in the public action management. The principle of shared governance is based on the existence of three elements: a certain transparency of information, freedom of expression and rules organizing everyone's participation in collective decision-making. The evolution of this logic of action is based, in particular, on a renewed representation of the organizational ideal type. Transparency does not necessarily imply objective information. The latter is moreover complex to identify. Indeed, everyone will have their own idea of the degree of transparency of each public administration. But the way in which information is presented is of the utmost importance. From explanation to pedagogy, from rhetoric to propaganda, social media are a modern translation of age-old public communication. The difference lies in the virality of communication processes and their interactivity. If the relationship is supposed to be positive, social media seem to empower ordinary citizens by producing a space for public discourse and discussion. What's more, the tools available on these platforms enable the public figure to disseminate information in real time (Bertot et al., 2010), develop interactions with citizens, increase transparency, public participation and accountability (Bonsón et al., 2012). By adopting an optimistic vision, social networks bring a renewal in the apprehension of democracy. Mobilizing work on participation, collaboration and transparency (Calhan et al., 2021) helps us understand the issues surrounding these new forms of exchange. In some cases, social media enable co-evaluation and co-design (Cho, Melisa, 2021). They provide an answer to one of the main problems identified by Eun (2017): that non-specialists and people not directly concerned (average citizens) can actively participate in the decision-making process. While social media involve participation by the individuals who frequent them, measuring engagement with public participation requires the utmost caution (Mabillard et al., 2021; Feeney, Porumbescu, 2021). This explains why some authors (Agostino, Arnaboldi, 2016) are developing methods such as engagement matrices to differentiate political communication (more focused on propaganda) from political engagement (more focused on democratic participation). Some work shows that social media are not necessarily used to create dialogue but are rather mobilized to provide information (Leone, Delli Paoli, 2016). The aim of this contribution is to discuss the positioning of public administrations regarding to the use of social media. A quantitative study will be conducted on the LinkedIn social network in French urban communities. It will verify Agostino and Arnaboldi's model. References AGOSTINO, D.; ARNABOLDI, M. (2016). “A measurement framework for assessing the contribution of social media to public engagement. An empirical analysis on Facebook”, Public Management Review, 18(9), 1289-1307. DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2015.1100320 BERTOT, J.C. et al. (2010). “Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies”. Government Information Quarterly, 27(3), 264-271. BONSON, E. et al. (2012). “Local e-government 2.0: Social media and corporate transparency in municipalities”. Government Information Quarterly, 29(2), 123-132. CALHAN H.S. et al. (2021). “The reflection of public values in twitter use of metropolitan municipalities: A content analysis employing the analytic hierarchy process”, Information Polity, 26(4), 391-415. DOI: 10.3233/IP-210327 CHO, W.; MELISA, W.D. (2021). “Citizen coproduction and social media communication: delivering a municipal government’s urban services through digital participation”, Administrative Sciences, 11(2), 59. DOI: 10.3390/admsci11020059 EUN, J. (2016). “Consensus Building through Participatory Decision-Making”. Gestion et Management Public, 5(2), 5-20. DOI: 10.3917/gmp.052.0005 FEENEY, M.K.; PORUMBESCU, G.A. (2021). “The limits of social media for public administration research and practice”, Public Administration Review, 81(4), 787-792. DOI: 10.1111/puar.13276 KLIJN, E-H.; SKELCHER, C. (2007). “Democracy and governance networks: compatible or not?”, Public Administration, 85(3), 587-608. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2007.00662.x LEONE, S.; DELLI PAOLI, A. (2016). “Public administrations in a digital public space. A framework for assessing participatory and multistakeholder models of relationship on Twitter”, Current Politics and Economics of Europe, 27(1), 85-122. MABILLARD, V. et al. (2021). “Digital communication in Swiss cities: A closer look at the low adoption and usage of social media platforms in a technologically advanced and innovative country”, Information Polity, 26(4), 341-354. DOI: 10.3233/IP-200294 PRYOR, M.G. et al. (2014). “The role of social media in transforming governments and nations”, International Journal of Business and Public Administration, 11(1), 19-30.
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hal-04346171 , version 1 (15-12-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04346171 , version 1

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David Huron, Grégory Spieth. Social media : what positioning for the public administration ? The case of French urban comunities. Annual International Conference of Korean Association for Public Administration, "Harmonious development of the central and local governments", KAPA, Jun 2023, Daecheon, South Korea. ⟨hal-04346171⟩
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