The nature of government tweets for conveying a message to the public

Abstract

ABSTRACTGovernments wish to keep certain types of information concealed from the public due to a variety of different reasons. Government agencies that protect secrecy often have a difficult time connecting to the public (WGPC, 2014). Secretive, or perceived secretive government organizations often fall into the nebulous realm of uncertainty for the information consumer. This results in a great deal of misinformation and disinformation being thought of as correct (Hernon, ). These types of wrong information are ubiquitous on the internet and even more so on social media, where rumors are often passed as truth. Since 2008, the US government is moving toward a more transparent, open, and easily accessed information base through social media (Lathrop & Ruma, ). Agencies across the government are adopting types of social media communication. However, bureaus that primarily focus on security and safeguarding secrets struggle with how much to share and which platforms of social media are the ‘best’ for their message, and how to inure trust from their audience. This study is a content analysis of parent tweets from government agencies of the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, International Atomic Energy Agency, and National Security Agency (CIA, FBI, DHS, IAEA, and NSA) and the responses of the tweets from the public to assess the tone of message and response.