The impact of social media on local government transparency and citizen engagement: The case of Tirana Municipality

Abstract

Over the last few decades, a decline on the trust of the citizens towards their government has been documented, leading to a fundamental concern in public administration (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2014). The perception of transparency has been identified as an important source of trust in government (Curtin & Meijer, 2006). Various authors have highlighted the potential contribution of social media in transforming the public administration towards a new and open format characterized by a) growth of the opportunity of citizens to participate in decision-making; b) improvement of public services; as well as c) promoting new forms of responsibilities. Taking advantage of the opportunities offered by social media, is not limited to the central government. Literature suggests that local governments can achieve many advantages by using social media in the communications with their citizens, and in participatory engagement strategies (Cohen, 2016; Belle, 2013; Tucker, 2011). Although local governments currently use social media to communicate, studies on how they use their platform are missing. In this context, this thesis aims to analyze the communication strategies of local governments through social media usage, and the effectiveness of these strategy in relation to transparency and citizen engagement. More specifically, this thesis examines the impact of Facebook on local government transparency and citizen engagement, focusing on the Tirana Municipality. The field of study addresses two types of different data; one consisting of an analysis of all the Facebook content posts made by Tirana Municipality for a period between June 2020-May 2021, and the other one consists of a qualitative analysis, from semi-structured interviews of the responses of Directorate of Digital Communication employees in Tirana Municipality. Finally, the conclusions of this thesis contribute towards the debate on local government transparency and citizen engagement, and provide important direction in developing suitable strategies and policies of social media activities.