Signsoftrust.Investigatingsocialmediaasconnectiveenablers
betweenmunicipalitiesanddigitalpublics.
Alessandro Lovari (Ph.d), University of Cagliari (Italy)Letizia Materassi (Ph.d), University of Florence (Italy)
BledCom – Silver Edition – July 2018
Università di Cagliari
Signs of Trust#bledcom2018
IntroductionIna«VUCA»world,thestrategicuseofsocialmediaseemstoplaya
crucialroleinreconnectinggovernmentsandpublicsectororganizationswithcitizens.
Thisenthusiasmisnotoftensupportedbyempiricalstudiesaboutthecitizen’sperceptionofpublicsectortrustworthiness.
AsErmischandGambetta(2016)argued,«trustandtrustworthinessarenotionsnotaddressedin
general,butreferredtoaspecificcontextandrelationship.»
Wecoulddetecttrustonly“inaction”.
Università di Cagliari
Aim ofthestudy
Detectingthe“signsoftrust”inthesocialmediaenvironmentinhabitedbyItalianmunicipalities.
“Signsoftrust”meansinvestigatingwhatleadscitizenstotrustortodistrustgovernmentintheirdailyinteractions(Cook,2001)
Università di Cagliari
OFFLINE DIGITAL
Theoretical Framework
TheerosionofTRUSTininstitutions
Fukuyama,1995;Bacharach,Gambetta,2001;Ermisch,Gambetta,2016;Edelman,2018
SocialMediauseinthePublicSector
Communication
Bertot etal.,2010;Criado etal.,2013;Mergel,2013;Bonsòn,Royo,Ratkai,2014;Warrenetal.,2014;
Haro-de-Rosarioetal.,2018;Lovari&Valentini,2019
TheItalianscenario• SocialmediaadoptioninPublicSectorCommunication
• Digitalpublics’communicativebehaviors• Generaldistrustandgrowthofpopulistmovements
Università di Cagliari
SocialMediaasenablersofconnectivity
Coleman2012;Lee&Kwak,2012;VanDijck&Poel,2013
Putnam,1993;D’Agostino,2013;Lovari,Parisi 2015;Censis 2017;Edelman,2018
ResearchQuestions• RQ1: Whoarecitizenswithhigherleveloftrustintheir
municipalities?AretheredifferencesintrustbetweenMunicipality’sFacebookpages’fansandFacebooknonusers?
• RQ2:WhicharethecommunicationbehaviorsthatcitizensperceiveasmorerelevantsignsoftrustwithintheirMunicipality’sFacebookpages?
• RQ3:Whicharethe“signsoftrust”thatcitizenswouldliketofindintheInstitutionalFacebookpagestoimprovetheirtrustinMunicipalities?
Università di Cagliari
Methodology• June2018:web-survey(24questions)aimingatinvestigating
citizens’ perceptionofthequalityofdigitalmunicipalitycommunicationandatdetectingperceivedsignsoftrustwithinItalianMunicipalitiesFacebookLikePages.
• Identificationofsignsoftrustonsocialmediabasedonliteraturereview(Mergel 2013;Warrenetal.,2014;Bonson etal.,2015;Porumbescu,2016)
• Web-surveywaspublishedonFacebook,TwitterandLinkedIn,promotedbyItalianPublicSectorCommunicationAssociationsandbyseveraldigitalinfluencersviasocialmedia.
• Auto-selectedsample(Marradi,2004;Vehovar &Manfreda,2008)
FirstphaseofamorearticulatedstudyFindingsreferstofirst200citizenswhotookparttothesurvey
Università di Cagliari
Findings:Respondents’profiles• Gender(▷ F),Age(▷ 25-54y),Education(++)
91.2%
68.22%
64.95%
50.93%
26.64%
14.02%
• 54.93%,morethan8years• 26.44%,morethan5years
• 82.71%Facebookviasmartphone
Università di Cagliari
• 52.82% (n.99)arefansoftheirmunicipalityonFacebook
DidtheuseofFacebookMunicipalityPagechangethequalityofMunicipality
communication?
• Yes,itimprovesit– 52.94%• Yes,itgotworse– 2.94%
• Noinfluenceonquality– 33.33%• Idon’tknow– 10.78%
• (n.99)
Università di CagliariTobeornottobeMunicipalityfans?
a)ArecontentspostedintheFacebookPagetrustworthy?
• Yes,always– 25.24%• Yes,often– 41.75%• Yes,sometimes–30.1%• Never– 2.91% (n.99)
Findings#RQ1:TrustinMunicipalityandFacebookOfficialPagefans
Resultsshowasignificantdifference
• FacebookMunicipalityfans(n.99)Trust- mean:5.99
• NonFacebookMunicipalityfans(n.90)Trust- mean:4.99
p‹0,01– n.189
Università di Cagliari
Findings#RQ2:PerceivedsignsofTrust
Università di Cagliari
Findings#RQ3:signsoftrust• Wecollected93suggestionsfromItalianMunicipalityFacebookFans
Università di Cagliari
VoicesforimprovingtrustonSM
n. 93
CONTENTS
TRANSPARENCY NOPOLITICALINTERFERENCE
TECHNICALASPECTS
INTERACTIVITY&
PARTICIPATION
Università di Cagliari
Conclusions&furthersteps• FacebookMunicipalityPagesrespresentconnectiveenvironments,where
trustisnegotiatedbetweenmunicipalitiesandcitizens• Signsoftrustarerelatedto“Messagequality”,“Qualityofinteraction”,
“Trustedsources”.ThepresenceofTrustedsources(i.e.,linktoofficialwebsiteandnewsmedia)seemstohaveakeyroleincitizens’trustperceptiononsocialmedia
• Citizens’voiceshighlighttheperceivedlackofskillsinmanagingrelationshipswithcitizensinordertofostertrustonsocialmedia
Limitationsofstudy preliminaryphaseofthestudy– focusonlyonFacebook
Furtherstepsofresearch• Followupofthestudy - web-surveyinaselectedpanelofmunicipalities
- interviewswithPRpractitioners
• InvestigatetherelationshipsbetweenpoliticalcommunicationandpubliccommunicationonFacebookPages;offlineparticipationandsignsoftrust
Università di Cagliari
04/07/18
Thank you foryour attention!
For any feedback J
[email protected] [email protected]@alelovari @ltzmtr
Università di Cagliari
