2020

Lovari, Alessandro; Valentini, Chiara

This chapter deals with social media and explains how it influences the evolution of public sector communication in light of an increasing digitalization and modernization of organizational processes that the sector has been undergoing in late modern societies. It discusses both the opportunities and limits of using social media for public sector communications. The chapter first focuses on the main changes of global communications brought by social media, on the evolution of social media adoption and implementation in the framework of the public sector's modernization, and on the domestication of these platforms in such organizations. It then highlights how social media can be integrated into the public sector, its main uses, and the changes that it is bringing to communication flows. The chapter further deals with critiques of and challenges in adopting social media for public sector communication, as well as with key future research questions.