The Limits of Social Media for Public Administration Research and Practice

• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Mary K. Feeney,Gregory Porumbescu
• Date: 01 July 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13276

The Limits of Social Media for Public Administration Research and Practice 787

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 4, pp. 787–792. © 2020 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13276.

Mary K. Feeney

Gregory Porumbescu

Rutgers University – Newark

Yonsei University

The Limits of Social Media for Public Administration

Research and Practice

Abstract: Governments around the world increasingly rely on social media to expand civic engagement. While

these efforts are motivated by optimism that social media platforms have the potential to mobilize more diverse

segments of the public, there is growing concern that the use of these tools by governments can reinforce existing power

differentials and create new challenges for inclusion, accountability, and democracy. To understand the potential of

social media to expand civic engagement, we call for greater integration of science and technology studies literature

into public administration social media research. By drawing from the science and technology studies literature, public

administration researchers can better assess the political and social inequalities embedded in social media tools and

better inform practitioners on the use of social media to effectively engage the public.

Points for practitioners

• Practitioners should recognize that social media platforms are not “neutral” tools. They have political and

social bias embedded in their design, users bring social and political bias to their adoption and application,

and outcomes of their use are unequal.

• Governments should recognize the limitations of social media platforms and use them with caution.

• Practitioners should interrogate the ways specific social media platforms are exclusionary, limit accountability

and democratic outcomes, and provide alternative mechanisms to get around those limitations.

• Research on social media and civic engagement should evaluate the design and political nature of social

media platforms, including ownership, autocratic nature, racism, and sexism by design.

We ought to attend more closely to the technical

objects themselves than the social context

(Winner1980, p. 135).

Social media are social networking applications

characterized by user-driven content, online

identity creation, and social networking functions

(Magro2012). Common examples include Twitter,

Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and

wikis.The public administration literature notes

the potential of social media to engage the public

in government decision-making, reform, and policy

implementation (Mergel2013; Zavatarro and

Sementelli Zavattaro and Sementelli2014). Much of

the optimism surrounding social media is explained

by the ease with which individuals can use social

media to voice their opinions, interact with public

officials in real time, and forge stronger relationships

with government (Bertot, Jaeger, and Grimes2010;

Hand and Ching2011). With these benefits in

mind, social media might advance the quality of

democratic governance by ushering in an era of more

interactive, transparent, and trusting relationships

between the community and government (Ayanso and

Moyers2012) and creating collaborative online spaces

(Wachhaus2017).

In practice, governments generally use social media

for information dissemination but struggle to use

the platforms to engage in dialogue with the public

(Gunawong2015; Hand and Ching2011). The

emerging critique is that social media represents

the latest iteration of technology overpromising

in theory and underdelivering in practice. Rather

than transforming relationships between the public

and government, social media platforms appear to

reinforce existing power differentials and reduce the

quality of communication between government and

the citizenry (Piccorelli and Stivers2019).

We argue that government use of social media for

civic engagement can be improved by advancing

public administration research beyond its current

focus on the role of context and users (Fusi and

Feeney2018; Mergel2013) toward a deeper

understanding of the political and social biases in

technologies themselves. Drawing from science

and technology studies (STS), we provide a critical

Arizona State University

Gregory A. Porumbescu is an assistant

professor in the School of Public Affairs and

Administration at Rutgers University –

Newark where he is associate director for

the Transparency and Governance Center.

His research focuses on government

transparency, public management, and

public sector applications of information

and communications technology.

Email: greg.porumbescu@rutgers.edu

Mary K. Feeney is Professor and Lincoln

Professor of Ethics in Public Affairs at

ASU, where she is associate director for

the Center of Science, Technology, and

Environmental Police Studies. Her research

focuses on public management and science

and technology policy.

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