Social media and public administrations, between rights and duties: a sociological perspective

Abstract

The article investigates the impact of social media on Italian public sector administrations. Adopting a sociological perspective, the manuscript highlights the main changes and transformations carried out by these digital platforms to the public sector in the relationships with citizens and mass media. The lens of analysis is that of public sector communication, through which the article critically analyzes communication models and practices performed by Italian administrations to face the digital challenges, between rights and duties to be fully social media oriented.
Using several keywords (quality, responsibility, listening, participation), the manuscript unfolds the challenges that public administrations are facing today in digital public sector communication, focusing on concepts like assembled mix and alignment 2.0 that require to consider legal, organizational, technological and above all cultural dimensions within every public administration. In this context public administrations need to develop a clear, credible and visible voice in the social media environment. Thus, it is necessary to invest in specific training processes that can improve the quality of public sector communication and can prevent new practices of rhetoric of technological innovation that could enhance distrust in citizens and strategic publics.