The employment of dialogic principles in the websites and social media platforms of museums in China

ABSTRACT

This study conducted a content analysis to investigate the extent of museums’ online communication by utilizing their communication tools, such as websites and social media platforms, to fulfill their various activities and purposes. This study first applied dialogic principles to Chinese museums and examined national first-grade museums’ websites and social media platforms (e.g., Weibo and WeChat) to better understand online communication under China’s circumstances. The results showed that most museums did well in terms of convenience and information usefulness, but the item related to interactions was not ideal. More than four out of five museums had social media accounts, indicating that museums had transferred online communication from websites to social media platforms. In addition, the museum type or the number of visitors did not influence the employment of dialogic communication in museums. In the future, both museums and the public should strengthen dialogic communication to build a better dialogic environment for museums’ sustainable development.

KEYWORDS:

• Dialogic principle
• online communication
• social media
• museum
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by MSIT (Ministry of Science and ICT), Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center): [Grant Number IITP-2020-0-01749-001].

Notes on contributors

Xiaole Zhu

Xiaole Zhu is a doctoral student in the Department of Culture, Tourism and Content, Kyung Hee University, South Korea. Her research interests include cultural tourism and museums, and their uses of information technology.

Yoonjae Nam

Yoonjae Nam is an associate professor in the Department of Culture, Tourism and Content, Kyung Hee University, South Korea. He is interested in communication phenomena in general, and diffusion of media and technology, tourism, and social networks in specific.