Does Social Media Transform City Government?
A case study of three ASEAN cities: Bandung, Indonesia, Iligan, Philippines and Phuket, Thailand explores whether social media can bring about structural changes to the local government
Can social media impact the organizational form and function of selected local governments? This topic was the basis of a report which explored the impact of social media on structural changes of three local governments in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
The research concluded that social media use has not yet affected the internal organizational processes in the three cities. Its use is also not appropriated as a space for citizen–government interaction. It is primarily used for information dissemination/collection with the public but not for involving them in the decision-making process. It is important to note that this paper covers only three cities in the ASEAN countries, and the findings cannot be generalized to others.
Social media for governments could pave the way to several benefits owing to its personalization and better community communication over and above traditional government websites. That being said, social media may hinder rather than facilitate the delivery of services due to the absence of a legal basis of its use, as well as agreements on the manner of its use, which prevents full integration of social media into the governance process, particularly in the cases of the cities of Iligan, the Philippines, and Phuket, Thailand.
Beyond Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, does the advent of social media and its growing impact affect governance in the UAE? With the majority of UAE population active on social media, the question of how it can play a role above and beyond basic interactions and information distribution should be asked.
It would be interesting to see if the government can identify new methods within the boundaries of social medial to include citizens/residents in policy ideation or creation, allowing for a vested interest and a greater community cohesion.
Case Study ASEAN.pdf
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