Web 2.0 and Social Media Growth in Planning Practice: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This paper looks at the growth of web-based communication for planning practice in local government over a three-year period. Despite communication with the community being an integral part of local government functions, the types of communication being used are rarely monitored or analysed. This paper provides a longitudinal comparison of the types of web-based communication, including social media and smartphone applications being employed by local government in New South Wales, Australia, and investigates the activity and sentiment of Twitter accounts for a sample of local government agencies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the growth of social media.

Keywords::

• public participation
• social media
• Internet
• sentiment analysis
• Australia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their interest in this topic and insightful comments on a previous version of this paper. The authors also thank the Council staff who participated in the surveys.