Bringing all clients into the system – Professional digital discretion to enhance inclusion when services are automated

The increasing use of automated systems for decision-making and decision support in public administration is forming new practices and challenging public values since public services must be impartially accessible and designed for everyone. New robotistic process automation (RPA) systems are generally designed based on back-office structures. This requires clients to submit relevant data correctly in order for these services to function. However, not all potential or intended users of these services have the competence and the capacity to submit accurate data in the correct way. Front-line case workers at public agencies play critical roles in supporting those who have problems using the services due to the aforementioned accessibility requirements and thereby work in bridging digital divides. This article analyses strategies used by front-line case workers to complement RPA and improve the inclusion of all clients in the services. It builds on qualitative case studies at two Swedish authorities, including in-depth interviews and observations. The study shows that the discretion of the front-line case workers is limited by the RPA systems, and they also have limited discretion to support clients in their use of the digital services. Instead, they develop strategies in line with more service- and socially-oriented values; duty-oriented values are integrated into the RPA. The analysis shows the importance of forming new support structures for inclusion when public services are automated to maintain the core public values of inclusion and democratic legitimacy.

Social media use for public engagement during water crisis in Cape Town

This study examines social media use for public engagement during the Cape Town water crisis in South Africa. The study applies technology affordance and attribution theories to explore social media features (affordances) utilised by local authorities and the public, meanings embedded in the social media posts and the attributions of the water crisis cause among the actors Data gathering and analysis followed mixed methods. Qualitative data were gathered using key informant interviews and netnography (data scrapping on Twitter) while a household survey (n= 96) was conducted to obtain quantitative data. The university research committee and City of Cape Town issued ethical clearances. During the water crisis, metavoicing, persistent engagement and visibility emerged as social media affordances Social media posts reflected societal dynamics and attributed the crisis as external, unstable, and controllable These findings are critical towards handling future crises and suggest collaborative efforts as the desirable action.

Social media use in government health agencies: The COVID-19 impact

Government communications typically use social media for federal agencies, national policies, and emergency cases. However, it is crucial to understand the use of these platforms within local government agencies. This investigation fills this gap and includes social media data during three months of the COVID-19 pandemic and compares it with previous trends. The research question that leads this research is: How has government social media use and communication behavior changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic? This research analyzes a study case applied to a local Mexican government agency named ISSEMyM. We analyze the data during the period between October 2017 and June 2020. Findings reveal a consistent use of Twitter and Facebook for communication by the ISSEMyM government agency. Also, it indicates an increase in engagement and communication flow over three years. We found that official local government communications remained unchanged during the whole period. We found no change in interaction, number of followers, and message structure during this period; however, the COVID-19 pandemic radically alters interactions, followers, and user engagement.

Media use, information reliability and political efficacy in Tunisia, 2011–2019

Information access and open communication – through in person and mediated information and communication technology – are critical to an informed citizenry in democratic societies. The 2011 Arab Spring uprising that originated in Tunisia and resulted in the overthrow of long-time Tunisian authoritarian president Ben Ali, established a new transitional government with more democratic institutions and more open press and political expression. In this paper, we explore changes over time (2011–2019) in the use by young, educated Tunisians of different political information sources, the perceived reliability of these sources, their information sharing behavior, and sense of being politically well-informed (i.e., political information efficacy). We report here results from the third of three surveys we administered of an online questionnaire to three different but comparable opportunity samples of young, educated Tunisians. The first two surveys conducted in 2012 and 2015 have been previously reported. We compare results from the most recent survey regarding 2019 elections with findings from the two prior surveys. Our findings confirm increasing perceived reliability of government information sources during the 2014 and 2019 elections, and decreasing reliability of social media. Results also confirm that higher perceptions of information reliability along with information sharing, lead to greater political information efficacy which is an important predictor of further democratic political participation.

In conversation with digitalization: Myths, fiction or professional imagining?

We are surrounded by narratives about digitalization – in media, in white papers, in policies and in academic discourse. This article aims to dissect policy narratives to unveil the dominant stories associated with digitalization and open a dialogue on their consequences. The empirical material includes policy documents on digitalization at the European Union, national and sub-national levels focusing on the Swedish context. The article argues that these documents not only produce narratives of digitalization that reveal a certain orientation towards reality but also become tangible constructs. Further, despite their neutral language, they should be considered part of the problem formulation. The analysis is carried out by identifying the dominant and taken-for-granted stories, and the results show that digitalization, often portrayed as a modern and innovative concept, is frequently narrated in line with rather traditional perceptions of industrialized modernity. The results indicate that digitalization is trapped in an unambiguous and cramped dramaturgy, and if policies are enacted in the same way in practice, we will face a rather un-resilient digital modernity.

Virtual reality-driven serious communication: Through VR-Dialogue towards VR-Participation

e-Participation depends on a community of users-citizens who constructively engage and collaborate with governments and decision-makers on key democratic and social matters. Effective serious communication requires meaningful social interactions supported by relevant community-building efforts. We argue that achieving that is more visible by engaging dialogue with a constructive shared viewpoint rather than thorough discussions or argumentation. The emerging social Immersive Virtual Reality technologies supply a novel mode of digital communication that brings an opportunity to overcome some of the challenges hindering e-Participation. In this paper, we present the key concepts and explore the principles of Dialogue in the context of serious communication. We link those principles with specific Immersive VR affordances and propose a Framework for Virtual-Reality-Mediated Serious Communication – VR-Dialogue. Finally, we discuss the implications of employing that framework to support e-Participation through an additional component: VR-Participation.

Digital communication in Swiss cities: A closer look at the low adoption and usage of social media platforms in a technologically advanced and innovative country

While a vast majority of local governments in Europe are communicating on social media, the situation differs in few states. Although Switzerland is often depicted as a technological advanced and innovative country, cities are still largely resisting the temptation to share information on social media platforms. In this study, we rely on a survey distributed to the communication managers of all cities over 10,000 inhabitants in Switzerland to uncover the reasons explaining this behavior. This approach is preferred to understand what motivates or prevents cities from communicating on social media, focusing mainly on perceptions of risks related to these platforms. Results indicate that some factors identified in the literature on public sector organizations slow down the social media adoption and usage at the local level; but interestingly, the conservative approach to social media preferred by numerous cities also plays a major role in explaining cities’ absence on these platforms.