Uses of social media in government agencies: Content analyses of public relations strategies and message tactics comparison between South Korea and the United States of America in 2011 and 2014

• Published date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1687
• Author: Moon J. Lee,Hajin Cho
• Date: 01 May 2018

ACADEMIC PAPER

Uses of social media in government agencies: Content analyses

of public relations strategies and message tactics comparison

between South Korea and the United States of America in 2011

and 2014

Moon J. Lee

1

|Hajin Cho

2

1

Department of Public Relations, University of

Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

2

Jeju National University, Jeju, Korea

Correspondence

Moon J. Lee, Department of Public Relations,

College of Journalism and Communications,

University of Florida, PO Box 118400

Gainesville, FL 32611‐8400, USA.

Email: mlee@jou.ufl.edu

We investigated five different government organizations' uses of social media in two coun-

tries: South Korea and the United States. Two content analyses were conducted in two time

periods: 2011 and 2014. We found that the majority of government organizations in both

countries use social media within the public information model (for dissemination of informa-

tion), followed by the two‐way asymmetrical model (for persuasion). As expected, the most

prevalent public relations strategy is informative strategy, followed by persuasive strategy.

The majority of government organizations use the information dissemination message strat-

egy. Specific differences were found between 2011 and 2014 as well as between two

countries.

1|INTRODUCTION

Social media emerged as one of the major communication tools and

became a critical component of civic society. According to the Pew

Research Center's 2014 data, 71% of Internet users utilize social media

such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in the United States

(Hampton, Rainie, Lu, Dwyer, & Shin, & Purcell, K., 2014). The most

recent statistics estimate about 79% of online adults use Facebook

alone, and this is equivalent to 68% of the U.S. adult population

(Pew Research Center, 2016). Communication activities through social

media are prevalent not only among ordinary people but also many

organizations including governmental agencies (Shirky, 2011).

The U.S. government has been active in using social media as a

public relations tool to communicate with the public. For instance,

the majority of government organizations in the United States cur-

rently useTwitter to disseminate information and connect with citizens

(Waters & Williams, 2011). This is also the case in South Korea where

Internet activities have been dramatically increased with 41 million

Internet users, which ranks it as the 11th largest number of Internet

users in the world. Moreover, the number of social media users

reached 28 million in 2014, and South Korea has one of the fastest

growth rates of social media users in the world (Korea Internet & Secu-

rity Agency, 2014). In 2016, 83% of the South Korean population were

estimated to be active social media users, and the most popular social

media was YouTube with 72% penetration (Statista, 2016).

With this fast‐growing trend, the South Korean government

expends its effort utilizing social media for communication manage-

ment purposes. The first significant sign was seen in 2010 when the

president of South Korea hired a chief online communicator, advocat-

ing social media as one of the best communication tools to publicize

government policies (Lee, 2011). Various social media have been

utilized by government agencies in South Korea since then (Yi, Oh,

& Kim, 2013). Similarly, many American government agencies and pol-

iticians have also set up social media accounts to promote govern-

ment information and services. For instance, the 45th President of

the United States, Donald Trump's use of Twitter in American politics

has brought a new era of social media use in government affair when

he started usingTwitter to communicate directly with American public

rather than traditional media briefings that were utilized among his

predecessor.

Although social media have attracted much attention from

scholars in different fields (e.g., Eyrich, Padman, & Sweetser, 2008;

Wright & Hinson, 2008), social media in government public relations

have received little attention from scholars (Landsbergen, 2010). The

potential use of social media for relationship management has been

previously discussed in different contexts (e.g., Baird & Parasnis,

2011; Waters & Williams, 2011). In particular, its speed and flexibility

to customize usage of social media for two‐way and multiway commu-

nication are identified as major advantages of social media use

(Fletcher & Lee, 2012). Despite a number of government organizations

Received: 26 September 2017 Accepted: 6 October 2017

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1687

J Public Affairs. 2018;18:e1687.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1687

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of8