Assessing Social Media Communications of Local Governments in Fast-Growing U.S. Cities

Abstract

With social media ubiquitous in our daily communication, local governments have increasingly relied on this new media platform for communicating and interacting with their citizens. It is still unclear, however, how to assess the effectiveness of social media communication efforts by local governments. Based on the Lasswell communication framework, this study proposes a new indicator, the Social Media Communication Index (SMCI), that can be used to compare and evaluate the degree of social media communication effectiveness among different cities. The index was then applied to the social media platforms used by the top growing U.S. cities. The results show that Orlando and North Charleston exhibit top communication effectiveness in social media. The study culminates in a research finding that the SMCI is positively correlated with the population growth rate and education levels.

社交媒体已经渗透到我们日常交流的各个方面。地方政府与公民的沟通和互动, 越来越依赖这种新媒体平台。然而, 如何评估地方政府利用社交媒体的传播效果, 目前仍不清楚。基于Lasswell传播框架, 本研究提出一个新的指标——社交媒体传播指数（SMCI）, 用来比较和评价不同城市社交媒体的传播有效性。本文研究了美国增长最快城市的社交媒体平台的SMCI。结果表明, Orlando和North Charleston的社交媒体具有最佳传播效果。SMCI与人口增长率和教育水平呈正相关。

Con la ubicuidad de los medios sociales en nuestra comunicación diaria, los gobiernos locales crecientemente están dependiendo de esta nueva plataforma mediática para comunicarse e interactuar con sus ciudadanos. Sin embargo, todavía no es claro cómo evaluar la efectividad de los esfuerzos de comunicación a través de los medios sociales por los gobiernos locales. Con base en el marco de comunicaciones de Lasswell, este estudio propone un nuevo indicador, el Índice de Comunicación por los Medios Sociales (SMCI), que puede usarse para comparar y evaluar el grado de efectividad de la comunicación por estos medios entre diferentes ciudades. Después de esto, se aplicó el índice a las plataformas de medios sociales usados por las ciudades americanas que están a la vanguardia en crecimiento. Los resultados muestran que Orlando y North Charleston exhiben el máximo grado de efectividad de los medios sociales en comunicación. La culminación del estudio es el descubrimiento de la investigación en el sentido de que el SMCI está positivamente correlacionado con la tasa de crecimiento de la población y con los niveles de educación.

Key Words:

• communication
• e-government
• Lasswell
• local governments
• social media

关键词：:

• 传播
• 电子政务
• Lasswell
• 地方政府
• 社交媒体。

Palabras clave::

• comunicación
• e-gobierno
• gobiernos locales
• Lasswell
• medios sociales

Acknowledgments

We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments and suggestions on the structure and various details of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially funded by a seed grant from the Advanced Coal and Energy Research Center (ACERC) at Southern Illinois University.

Notes on contributors

Ruopu Li

RUOPU LI is an Associate Professor in the Geography and Environmental Resources Program at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include social media analytics, water resources planning and management, geospatial artificial intelligence, and coupled environmental and social systems.

Md Mafuzur Rahaman

MD MAFUZUR RAHAMAN was a Graduate Student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include hydro-climatology, urban sustainability, artificial intelligence, water resources management, and probabilistic forecasting and downscaling. Currently, he is working as a Water Resources Engineer at AECOM.

Zhenghong Tang

ZHENGHONG TANG is a Professor and Program Director in the Community and Regional Planning Program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588. E-mail: [email protected]. His major research interests focus on environmental planning, hazard mitigation planning, and geospatial sciences in environmental management.

Leiming Zhao

LEIMING ZHAO was a Graduate Student in the Community and Regional Planning Program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include social media and its roles in public administration.