Introduction to Special Issue of First Monday by Rodrigo Sandoval-Almazan and Andrea L. Kavanaugh: “The use of social media by public administration has been growing steadily, and fostering important transformations in organization, costs, citizen interaction and efficiency. Citizens are increasingly more informed about government activities, performance, and claims solutions. Citiizens and non-profit organizations are in greater communication with each other about government planning and response to complex and collective problems. Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and WhatsApp, as well as related tools, such as commenting, liking, tagging and rating, change the distribution of information, power and resources. The growing maturity of public officials in the use of these tools not only creates new opportunities, but also engenders problems. Many politicians, public officials and public servants are seeking ways to adapt their daily operations and practices to make effective use of social media for interaction with non-governmental organizations and with citizens and to provide information and services more efficiently. The papers in this special issue on social media and government capture the current state of some of these opportunities and problems…
Engaging a community through social media-based topics and interactions by Andrea L. Kavanaugh, Ziqian Song
Public employees in social media communities: Exploring factors for internal collaboration using social network analysis by J. Ignacio Criado, Julián Villodre
Citizens’ use of microblogging and government communication during emergencies: A case study on water contamination in Shanghai by Qianli Yuan, Mila Gascó
Hacktivism and distributed hashtag spoiling on Twitter: Tales of the #IranTalks by Mahdi M. Najafabadi, Robert J. Domanski
Information strategies and affective reactions: How citizens interact with government social media content by Nic DePaula, Ersin Dincelli
Towards an understanding of Twitter networks: The case of the state of Mexico by Rodrigo Sandoval-Almazán, David Valle-Cruz”