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The Use of Twitter by Local Government in Northern Ireland

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E-Business and Telecommunications (ICETE 2013)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 456))

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a survey of Twitter usage in Northern Ireland’s twenty-six councils. The data was gathered in Summer 2012. The research questions were developed from a review of the literature on use of social media by government and focused on the role of social media as a communication channel to local government, examining the dialogue between government and citizen and the sentiment of such dialogue. The results show significant heterogeneity in Twitter use amongst the councils; with many not engaging at all, while a small number were highly engaged with their citizens. Regardless of the perspectives of the councils, there was evidence that there was a demand from the citizens for conversations that was not being met by the councils. The paper recommends that councils need to define a social media strategy in order to maximise the use of social media, but reflects that the councils should find it easy to engage with citizens by simply asking them via Twitter. The paper also describes the recent explosion in use of social media by citizens in Northern Ireland to support fractious, polemical argument on identity politics.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Tiago Picão

  2. School of Communication, University of Ulster, Belfast, UK

    Fiona McMahon & Valerie Purchase

  3. TRAIL Living Lab, School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Ulster, Belfast, UK

    Maurice Mulvenna

Authors
  1. Tiago Picão
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  2. Fiona McMahon
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  3. Valerie Purchase
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  4. Maurice Mulvenna
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maurice Mulvenna .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey, USA

    Mohammad S. Obaidat

  2. Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, INSTICC, Setúbal, Portugal

    Joaquim Filipe

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Picão, T., McMahon, F., Purchase, V., Mulvenna, M. (2014). The Use of Twitter by Local Government in Northern Ireland. In: Obaidat, M., Filipe, J. (eds) E-Business and Telecommunications. ICETE 2013. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 456. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44788-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44788-8_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-44787-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-44788-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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