Blogging as a Communication Strategy for Government Agencies: A Danish Case Study

Abstract

More and more government agencies are starting to use social media as part of their communication strategy to increase organizational transparency, collaborations inside and outside the organization, and public participation. In this study, we investigate how civil servants use a blog in a government agency in Denmark and their viewpoints on the actual contribution of blogging for their organization’s communication goals. The study is longitudinal and qualitative. We collected and analyzed data from focus groups, interviews, observations and document analysis at different points of time from 2007 until 2013. The results indicate that the agency’s primary scope for blogging is increasing its visibility and being perceived as an expert source of information among the media and specialized publics. To a lesser extent, the government agency was able to communicate with the general public and involve its stakeholders by posting content of recreational nature and even less to develop dialogue with them. The analysis indicates that over the years blogging has become highly specialized and has lost part of its relevance, as it has not contributed to increasing agency visibility in the media nor to promote a more participatory and transparent government agency. This study shows that strategic communication via blogging for a government agency is often a complex, full of dilemmas activity to engage with, and its real value is often overestimated.

Acknowledgments

DKPTO has an open policy and all information on the blog regarding purpose; disclaimer and data on the blog writers are available to the public online (cf. Appendix). Regarding data collection, permissions of use of the material were given to the authors. Interview respondents participated anonymously in accordance with mutual oral agreements.

Notes

¹ The government agency’s website: http://www.dkpto.org/.

² The official blog: http://ip-bloggen.dkpto.dk/