citizen engagement with indian ministries through twitter

Citizen Engagement With Indian Ministries Through Twitter

Contents What Can Be Expected From Citizen Engagement With

Indian Ministries Through Twitter ...........................................................................3

Case Study: Ministry of External Affairs .............................................................. 6

Case Study: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare ............................10

Case Study: Ministry of Communications ......................................................... 14

Case Study: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change ...........17

Case Study: Ministry of Finance ...........................................................................20

Case Study: Ministry of Power .............................................................................. 24

Case Study: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare ...........................................28

Case Study: Ministry of Railways ......................................................................... 32

Case Study: Ministry of Urban Development ..................................................36

Case Study: Ministry of Tourism ..........................................................................40

Primary Takeaways ................................................................................................ 43

Policy Recommendations .....................................................................................45

Conclusions, Limitations & Steps For The Future .........................................46

Ministry Specifi c Highlights .................................................................................. 47

Bibliography ...............................................................................................................48

Conceived and compiled by:

Jonathan [email protected]

Sahil [email protected]

With inputs from:

Abhay [email protected]

Acknowledgements

Sanaaya KurupSanjana Krishnan Anand Agashe Amit Tekale Rahul Phuge

3Berlin | Strasbourg | Pune

www.cpc-analytics.com | [email protected]

What Can Be Expected From

Citizen Engagement With Indian Ministries Through TwitterObjective

The primary purpose of this report is to determine the behavioral consequences of e-governance communication strategies used by 10 randomly selected Indian ministries. The reason for this research is to address the rise of Twitter accounts in India and the potential impact that will have on policies and government administrational habit. As such, the following questions have been proposed:

What models of civic engagement and organizational learning are currently in use by the selected Indian Ministries?

What patterns or trends in Twitter engagement can be attributed to these models?

What behavior should be expected from citizens when exposed to such activities?

Each case study will look at these three questions through a contextual analysis of responsibilities and Twitter content so as to ensure proper deference towards each ministries’ unique responsibilities. There will be 3 sections to the report. The fi rst provides considers the growing Twitter trends in India and their past impact on Indian politics. It will then progress into a brief explanation on the theories and methodology framing the overall analysis. The second section consists of 10 case studies detailing the fi ndings from the overall analysis. Finally, the report will conclude with general observations and recommendations for all ministries within the Indian government.



Indian Background & ContextCivic engagement is a central concern of democracies

and the rise of ICTs has not dissuaded that concern. In fact, e-governance platforms such as social media accounts that initiate dialogue with citizens are said to represent an important evolution in that regard.1

Recent studies have shown that such programs can increase public satisfaction2 with public services and increase feelings of transparency and accountability.3 This is particularly important for the Indian government and Modi administration who have made anti-corruption a central component of their government policies. As current estimates suggest internet usage will rise to 720 million by 2020, this is an ideal time to develop these platforms.

At the moment, there are signs that Twitter popularity is only increasing as Prime Minister Narenda Modi has increased his Twitter following by 24 million accounts in only three years. Recognizing that these platforms could be utilized to connect to voters and constituents in an entirely new way, the Modi government has even issued directives for all ministries and Ministers to integrate Twitter into their communication strategies.4 As of today, almost every single ministry has achieved this goal, with some taking it a step further by integrating customized analytics and response programs such as ‘Twitter Seva’ into their day-to-day operating procedures.5 Online communities and trends have developed around these policies, leading to memes like “10 Ways Sushma Swaraj Saved The Day.”6 While there are positives to such environments there are also risks that need to be considered in order to preserve the public’s engagement and trust.

Methodology and TheoryThere are three aspects that will be used to defi ne

how ministries interact with citizens. To begin with, the backgrounds of each ministry will be assessed and classifi ed within one of fi ve possible categories. As seen in Table 1, specifi c defi nitions enable the classifi cation

1 (Th omas and Streib 2003)

2 (Welch, Hinnant, and Moon 2004)

3 (Bertot, Jaeger, and Grimes 2010a)

4 (Rajeev Sharma 2014)

5 (Sharma 2016)

6 (Dawood 2015)

Table 1Ministry Classifi cations

Category Defi nition

Policy Oriented

To understand one or more aspects of the public and social policy process, including decision making and policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation.

Coordination, supervision oriented

Co-ordination of activities of various Central Government Agencies, State Governments/UTs and the Private Sector for the development and promotion of its core activity

Service delivery function

Responsible for managing and delivering a range of quality services to their communities, such as public health, recreational facilities, etc.

Support functions

The core activities of the government are supported with the assistance of a strong body of support function ministries.

Regulatory functions

Regulatory agencies serve two primary functions in the government: they implement laws and they enforce laws.



of ministries within these case studies. This will allow for each ministry to be evaluated on its own context, instead of purely by comparison to its peers.

The underlying theory of ‘Social Media Logic’ is what provides the initial framework for this entire report. According to Djick and Poell, social media represents a dramatic shift in the way that information is conveyed in societies.7 Whereas in the past, governments and media organizations existed as the proprietary sources of information, social media has allowed for a much more complex system in which individuals can now not only impact but dictate information.8 The second principle of social media logic discusses how the ability to assign “popularity algorithms”, such as likes and retweets on Twitter, empowers and legitimizes those who can amass a large enough volume of interactions.9 Inevitably, this allows for individuals and movements to advocate government reforms purely through the democratic legitimacy developed by means of assembling large online communities and sentiments.10

These communities are not guaranteed products of Twitter use, however. They require an environment in which discourse can be encouraged to occur. This is where organizational learning theory takes form. The fundamental concept behind this theory is that there are two types of information systems that allow individuals to engage and learn about an organization.11 One systems is known as ‘single-loop’ learning and revolves around government agencies controlling the fl ow of information in order to ask questions such as, “is this service effi cient and what could be improved?”12 This is commonly used by bureaucratic actors as it does not require dramatic innovation and

7 (Van Dijck and Poell 2013)

8 (Reddick, Chatfi eld, and Ojo 2017)



11 (Gilson, Dunleavy, and Tinkler 2009)


arguably maintains the status quo.13 The second system is known as ‘double-loop’ learning and diff ers from the former method by allowing information to fl ow from a complex network of sources to better address complex questions.14 In this form of organizational learning, citizens can engage with ministries to determine not just what policies they are working on but why the ministry behaves in the way that it does; it allows them to question the actual operating procedures of the government.15

As these systems are adapted, certain models of citizen interaction fi t more apprioriately with certain priorities. This paper will look at ‘Managerial’, ‘Consultative’ and ‘Participatory’ models. The fi rst focuses on one-way communication from a government actor to the public. The focus is on increasing the effi ciency and satisfaction of public services. This most commonly utilizes a ‘single-loop’ learning system. The ‘Consultative Model’ moves beyond services and instead aims to engage the public on a wide array of topics to crowd-source public opinion. This information is then utilized in policy making to better match citizens’ mindsets. This too commonly uses ‘single-loop’ learning. Finally, the ‘Participatory Model’ thrives through ‘double-loop’ learning where information originates from multiple sources and used by multiple sources to enact government change.

Each of the ministries analyzed in this report will be evaluated through these theories. Additionally, tweets collected in a proprietary system developed by CPC-Analytics will be subset and randomly selected for a quantitative analysis of likes and retweets. The standard deviation of these ‘popularity’ measures will demonstrate the consistency of interaction with tweets from the ministries’ respective Twitter handles.

13 (Argyris 1976)

14 (Macintosh n.d.)

15 (Im, Porumbescu, and Lee 2013)



Abstract:As a cabinet-level agency, the Ministry of External

Aff airs maintains two Twitter handles, @MEAIndia and @SushmaSwaraj. Through an analysis of a random subset of Tweets, each account will be evaluated within a specifi c organizational learning model. This is done by categorizing their respective tweets to determine the impact on citizen engagement. Both accounts boast millions of followers; however, engagement trends diff er leading rise to possible pitfalls in communication strategies that will be discussed given mathematical evaluation of Tweet demographic data.

What are the primary responsibilities of

the ministry?

Ministry of External Aff airs fulfi lls this vital role as a cabinet-level ministry that manages all relationships with foreign states and fellow commonwealth nations, while simultaneously maintaining and increasing ties with the United Nations, specialized agencies, IGOs and international conferences.16 Additionally, the MEA assists Indian citizens abroad and domestically in international issues. By acting on behalf of the nation in these situations it may present an opportunity for citizens to voice how they believe India should present itself to the world.

How can those responsibilities be classifi ed within

our 5 categories framework?

Enabling international and cross-governmental discourse requires an enormous level of coordinative skill and policy making prowess. However, most policies require collaborative work within the Cabinet and the PMO, not purely citizen demand. Programs like aiding

16 (Parliament of India 2014)

Case Study: Ministry of External Affairs



Indian citizens abroad, coordinating international student programs and passport distribution are more appropriate in that regard. This is due to the trend that shows citizens increase demands once eff ectively engaged via e-initiatives;17 such an occurrence poses a high level of risk in international relations. As a result, the MEA will be evaluated under the policy-oriented and service-delivery categories.

What model of citizen engagement/organizational

learning would be most appropriate given this

ministry’s responsibilities?

The communication strategies that a ministry uses with certain demographics sometimes can and probably should change depending on the demographic itself. As far as the MEA’s Twitter engagement with citizens is concerned, attention to the public services rendered needs to be frequent and responsive. At fi rst glance, this would suggest a ‘Participatory’ engagement model where citizens can produce information that the MEA must respond to and act upon.

In reality, that may not be the most fruitful method. The primary interaction that citizens have with the MEA is through services like abroad assistance, passports and the like which requires vast amounts of information that citizens normally do not have the means to collect. As such, it may be in the best interest of the ministry to utilize a managerial engagement model, in order to maximize service delivery and effi ciency.

Twitter Analysis: There is a distinct diff erent between both MEA Twitter

handles. Taking offi ce in May of 2014, @SushmaSwaraj has soared to a following of 7.71 million Twitter accounts. Meanwhile, @MEAIndia joined the Twitter community in December 2011 and only has 1.4 million followers, despite a longer presence and substantially more tweets.

Looking at Table 1, the Minister seems to be more popular, but why? To understand this distinction the Tweets from each account have been categorized per the framework addressed in the methodology.

The most common types of Tweets from both accounts are ‘Announcements’ discussing past, present, or future events. However, the next highest categories diff er. While the Ministry seems to prefer ‘Quotes’ related to


Twitter HandleDate Joined

# of Tweets # of Followers

@MEAIndia Dec-11 14.2K 1.32M

@SushmaSwaraj Nov-10 5,001 7.71M

Table 2Twitter Demographic Information for the MEA



their mission or ‘Greeting’ to community members they’ve interacted with, only the Minister has a substantial ‘Response’ rate. In fact, almost 25% of her tweets could be considered a direct response to an Indian constituent.

What model IS being used in the Ministry’s Twitter

handles?

As previously mentioned, both of the offi cial accounts for the MEA share ‘Announcements’ as their most common type of Tweet (43% - @MEAIndia, 35% - @SushmaSwaraj). This is consistent with a ‘Managerial Model’ where information is presented to the public in a ‘single loop learning’ manner.18 Emphasis isn’t on whether a certain policy should exist, but how citizens can best take advantage of such policies.

However, the Minister’s large percentage share of ‘Response’ tweets displays a ‘Participatory Model’. Tweets asking for assistance with MEA services such as repatriation of family remains, lost passport support and expatriate community aid are asked of the Minister herself, requiring new internal communication strategies and prompt policy action.


Table 3% share of Tweets from each MEA Twitter Handle within certain categories


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Announcement

Advocacy

Congratulations

Feedback

Greetings

Information

Reminder

Response

Quote

Ministry of External Affairs Tweets by Category

@MEAIndia @SushmaSwaraj



What behavior and or perception can this nurture?

Social Media thrives off of the idea that individuals can control or, at least, aff ect the fl ow of information.19 @MEAIndia, when compared to @SushmaSwaraj, is experiencing one of the obstacles that come with a ‘Managerial Model’: incentivizing citizen engagement. The statistics of the ministry’s received likes and retweets shows a consistent level of engagement due to the low standard errors and high averages.

The Minister best exemplifi es a ‘Participatory Engagement Model.’ These types of models allow citizens to set agendas for government actors to address and can be seen in the various ‘Response’ Tweets from Minister Swaraj assisting Indian constituents.

However, ‘Participatory Models’ are not fully understood as of yet and it is still unclear what specifi cally facilitates civic engagement and concurrent interaction. This is shown by @SushmaSwaraj’s larger standard errors of received likes and retweets. This shows that Twitter engagement can be more inconsistent.

SummaryIn conclusion, the MEA Twitter handles do seem to focus

their eff orts on service delivery and policy updates. While there is some crossover, the @MEAIndia account revolves more around policy updates through its ‘Managerial Model’ while @SushmaSwaraj manages public services in a larger volume via its ‘Participatory Model.’ The theoretical pitfalls of such dels are consistent with the reality of each Twitter Handle, each experiencing relatively low engagement and sporadic engagement respectively. This isn’t necessarily bad but is something to understand and requires analysis to prepare communication going forward.

19 (Van Dijck and Poell 2013)


Managerial Consultative Participatory

@MEAIndia Managerial Engagement Model

@SushmaSwaraj Participatory Engagement Model


Table 4Civic Engagement Model Slider

Table 5Standard deviation of Tweets’ likes and retweets

Twitter HandleLikes STD.ERROR

Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@MEAIndia Low High Low High

@SushmaSwaraj Medium Very High Medium High



Abstract:As one of the cabinet-level ministries within India,

the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare boasts responsibilities ranging from information delivery, agricultural analytics, economic development/empowerment and more. As a ministry with two Twitter handles, both will be evaluated to consider the diff erent civic engagement styles and their respective yields. This will be shown through categorizing a subset of tweets from the last year from each Twitter handle to identify the trends coming from each account.

What are the primary responsibilities of the ministry?

However, for the purposes of this case study the primary responsibilities will be referenced via three principle mandates: policy development and administration of agricultural produce regulations, cooperation and implementation of decisions made at international conferences, and fostering cooperation between the agricultural sector and other industries. As of 2010, these activities directly impacted around 50% of the estimated 500 million + Indian work force, thus warranting an analysis on citizen engagement.20



In a sense, it could be argued that this ministry falls under a service delivery context due to innovative e-administration platforms like the “Farmers’ Portal.” This database can empower farmers with information on crop prices, competitive seasonal indexing and even local suppliers of capital tools/supplies. Services like these depict citizens as “consumers of rights”


Case Study: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare



who can claim the, often specifi c and personalized, information generated by the government.21 However, this should not overshadow the massive coordination and policy oriented tasks that enable such services. As a result, this report shall asses the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare as Policy

Oriented.


learning would be appropriate given this ministry’s

responsibilities?

The actions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare are felt throughout its stakeholders in very direct ways. For example, recent action has supplied the states with over 68,000 crop management units to aid farmers in preserving, ripening and distributing products. Policies like this require cooperation from state governments and engagement by citizens and other interest groups. This can be achieved through a ‘double-loop learning’ learning model. Such policies depended on a certain level of transparency and value-oriented services in the minds of constituents and it has been shown that direct discourse via social media platforms like Twitter increase the credibility of government projects in the eyes of the populous. As such, one eff ective communication strategy that this ministry could utilize is the participatory

engagement model.

Tweet AnalysisAssuming offi ce in May 2014, Minister Singh has

maintained a strong presence on Twitter alongside the MoAFW. Both the ministry and the Minister offi cially joined Twitter in 2013 and have since grown large followings of around 50K and 123K Twitter accounts, respectively. As seen in Table 5, the Minister boasts the larger volume of interactions.

A possible reason for the relative gap between engagement levels can be seen in the types of tweets that each handle sends out. In Table 6, one can see that both handles predominantly send ‘Announcement’, ‘Advocacy’, and ‘Information’ tweets. The key diff erence comes in the form of ‘Response’ tweets.

Nearly 35% of the analyzed tweets from @RadhamohanBJP were direct responses, paired with an almost equally large volume of ‘Announcement’ tweets, followed by ‘Advocacy’ tweets.

21 (Michel 2005)

Twitter Handle Date Joined # of Tweets # of Followers

@AgriGoI May-13 2202 49.5K

@RadhamohanBJP Nov-13 5781 123K

Table 6Twitter Demographic Information for the MoAFW



What model IS being used in the Ministry’s

Twitter handle?

‘Advocacy’, ‘Announcement’, and ‘Information’ tweets account for 87% of those from the @AgriGoI handle. The purpose of ‘Advocacy’ and ‘Information’ themed messages is to encourage citizens to adopt a proposed government policy.22 This could suggest a ‘Consultative Model’ in which policy opinions are actively sought after by the government agency from the citizens.23 However, due to the low level of ‘Response’ and ‘Feedback’ tweets, it appears that @AgriGoI is using a ‘Managerial Engagement Model.’

Civic Engagement Model SliderThe Minister’s Twitter account balances ‘Response’ tweets with all three of those commonly used by the ministry handle, with ‘Announcement’ tweets representing roughly 35% of the total number. On their own, the response rate can suggest a ‘Participatory Model’; however, roughly 20% of those responses consist of clarifying policy schemes and thanking constituents. Due to these facts, the @RadhamohanBJP’s engagement model fi ts more closely with the ‘Consultative Model.’


23 (Macintosh n.d.)


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

AnnouncementAdvocacy

CongratulationsFeedbackGreetings

InformationQuote

ReminderResponse

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare Tweets % by Category

@AgriGoI @RadhamohanBJP

Table 7% share of Tweets from each MoAFW Twitter Handle within certain categories



@AgriGoI Managerial Engagement Model

@RadhamohanBJP Consultative Engagement Model






As with other ‘Managerial Models’, the primary obstacle to increasing citizen engagement is incentivizing the engagement itself, as individuals themselves are not in control of the information fl ow. In the case of @AgriGoI’s communications, tweets intend to incentivize use of new farming schemes and e-platforms that can empower farmers. In the case of @AgriGoI, the standard errors/means of likes and retweets shows that there is a consistent engagement but low level of engagement.

The Minister of the MoAFW has a much higher like average and a low standard error, displaying more consistency. However, his retweets standard error and mean share the same obstacles as the ministry’. This fi ts the pitfalls usually associated with ‘Consultative Models’.

SummaryIn conclusion, the MoAFW’s two Twitter accounts

predominantly use ‘Announcement’ and ‘Advocacy’ tweets when interacting with the public, staying consistent with our policy oriented classifi cation. These handles utilize diff erent engagement models: ‘Managerial’ and ‘Consultative.’ Overall, there are relatively low volumes of engagements when compared to other ministries but they are also relatively consistent. Additionally, it is interesting that the minister’s account has a much larger following and engagement level, even though both accounts arose around the same time. This could possibly be explained due to the high response rate from Minister Singh, but would need more study.


Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@AgriGoI Low Low Low Low

@RadhamohanBJP Low Medium Low Low




AbstractThe Ministry of Communications is headed by Manoj

Sinha and is divided into two departments- Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Posts. The fi rst step of this case study will be to assess a broad defi nition of the MoC’s responsibilities and determine how to classify them. It will then proceed to see how the Twitter data would showcase civic engagement with the ministry. Communication strategies are particularly essential for ministries such as this and this case study will seek to identify what civic engagement model it may be employing on Twitter.

What are the primary responsibilities of the Ministry?

The Ministry of Communications is headed by Manoj Sinha and is divided into two departments- Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Posts. The MoC has a large number of responsibilities, but for the purpose of simplicity, this report has condensed them into three major ones. The fi rst responsibility of the MoC is to formulate policies, rules and administrate laws related to various forms of communication and information technology like telegraphs, the internet, telephones, and data. The second is the management and allocation of spectrum to various private or public players. The third responsibility is to cooperate and co-ordinate with various international bodies that deal with telecommunications.24



For social media communication to be eff ective


Case Study: Ministry of Communications



and smooth, it is essential to understand the main functions and responsibilities of the Ministry. As stated above, the MoC has a large number of responsibilities that have been condensed into three major ones. However, this report will classify the services off ered by the MoC within a ‘coordination

and supervision’ oriented role, as a majority of its responsibilities include cooperating and coordinating with various state governments and organisational bodies to promote schemes and programmes related to telecommunications.

What model of citizen engagement/organisational

learning would be the most appropriate given this


As the MoC has a coordination and supervision’ oriented role, it is important for them to get the views of various stakeholders to improve the existing schemes that are being promoted. Thus, the Consultative model would be the most appropriate model for citizen engagement as the ministry could use social media to post information and receive comments from the stakeholders. The single-looped method of organisational learning would be the most appropriate because it would facilitate the stakeholders to post the questions and views that they have about the services off ered, which would lead to the overall improvement of the services, if the ministries uses the feedback provided.25

Tweet AnalysisAssuming offi ce in July 2016, Minister Sinha has

maintained a strong presence on Twitter boasting 81.9K followers to date. As the primary source of citizen communication via Twitter for the Ministry of Communications, this will be the sole handle evaluated.


handle?

The vast majority of tweets from @manojsinhabjp can be classifi ed as ‘Announcement’ tweets, which detail new policies, program updates and industry meetings. These alone account for 37% of the total subset. However, as Table 10 shows, ‘Response’ tweets are the second most frequent with roughly 17% representation.

The majority of these ‘Responses’ are aimed at

25 (Millard and Jeremy 2006)

Table 10Twitter Demographic Information for the MEA


@manojsinhabjp April-14 5,689 81.9K



solving grievances and complaints. This type of behavior exemplifi es a ‘double-loop learning’ style where citizens have the power to dictate information to the government, forcing action. Due to this context, it would appear that the MoC is utilizing a ‘Participatory Model’ for engagement. However, due to being the sole Twitter handle for the ministry, it also contains levels of ‘Managerial Models’ through its large volume of ‘Announcement’ type tweets.


The MoC is utilizing two engagement models and will thus need to be prepared for the habits associated with both. By employing elements of a ‘Managerial Model’, @manojsinhabjp may limit its potential engagement by controlling the majority of poicy information. While this may be bolstered by the ‘Participatory Model’ elements shown in the ministry’s ‘Response’ tweets, it also opens up the account to inconsistent engagement. This is visible in the Table 13, where the standard errors of retweets, relative to the average, which shows a relatively wide distribution of retweet numbers. The likes are more consistent with a medium average and low standard error.


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Announcement

Advocacy

Congratulations

Feedback

Greetings

Information

Quote

Reminder

Response

Ministry of Communications Tweets % by Category

@manojsinhabjp

Table 11% share of Tweets from each MoC Twitter Handle within certain categories



@manojsinhabjp Managerial/Participatory Model




Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@manojsinhabjp Low Medium Medium High

SummaryIn conclusion, the MoC is simultaneously using the

‘Managerial’ and ‘Consultative’ models for one Twitter handle. The thematic % of @manojsinhabjp’s tweets fi t alongside this report’s policy classifi cation as a coordination and supervisory role, with over 60% of tweets falling in a role showcasing policy updates or advocating policy adaption. However, there seems to be a tendency for citizens to reach out to this handle despite its ‘Managerial Model’ eff orts in order to identify solutions for various grievances.




The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is headed by Anil Madhav Dave. The Ministry has eighty responsibilities which have been summarised into two major ones in this report. The primary responsibility of the MoEFCC is to formulate policies and acts related to forests, environment and climate change. The second responsibility is to co-ordinate with the ministries, state governments and international organisations to implement schemes related to conservation and sustainable development.



Social Media like Twitter and Facebook can be used as eff ective tools of communication by the Ministries. As stated above, there are two major responsibilities of the MoEFCC. However, this report will classify the services off ered by the MoEFCC within a ‘Policy’ oriented role, as a majority of its responsibilities include formulating policies like the National Environment Policy and implementing schemes like the Joint Forest Management Programme for Conservation Management and Aff orestation.26




For a policy oriented ministry such as the MoEFCC, which functions under the mandate to change social behavior, it is important to determine the eff ectiveness and opinion of its actions. In that sense, citizens can contribute by posting their views and


Case Study: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change



inputs on the certain policies implemented or that are to be implemented. As the MoEFCC has a policy oriented role, the Consultative model would be the most appropriate to gather the views and inputs of the stakeholders which would then help in shaping policies. Apart from sharing their inputs, citizens can announce their level of satisfaction with the policies implemented, raise questions about the policies and put across how the processes of the MoEFCC can be made more effi cient.

Part Two: Two Twitter handles represent the MoEFCC: the

ministry’s offi cial Twitter handle and the minister’s. Both maintain large follower volumes with 9166 and 14.4K, respectively. Interestingly enough, the Mininster’s account has produced substantially less tweets overall.


handles?

The offi cial ministry Twitter handle and the Minister’s handle are relatively in-sync. ‘Announcement’ tweets account for over 40% of @moefcc and @anilmdave’s overall tweets. Additionally, both share similarly high percentages in ‘Advocacy’ and ‘Information’ tweets. This behavior coincides with the paramters of a policy-oriented ministry, such as the MoEFCC as those three categories are primarily used to convince citizens to adopt or react to policy-making.

Despite this commonality, however, there is a distinct diff erence between the two communication channels. @moefcc focuses primarily on collecting and disseminating information either through the aforementioned tweet themes or through ‘Feedback’ requests and community ‘Greetings’ posts. This is a clear example of a ‘Consultative Model’ of engagement, where citizen opinion is sourced from a single-loop information channel.

@anilmdave shares the preference for ‘Announcement’ and ‘Advocacy’ tweets but lacks the interactive messages displayed by @moefcc. With less than 5% of analyzed tweets categorized as ‘Feedback’ or ‘Response’ tweets, it appears that the Minister approaches civic engagement through a ‘Managerial Model,’ updating individuals on schemes and policies through a controlled single-loop information channel. However, the overwhelming percentage of categories consistent with the ‘Consultative Model’ demonstrates some behavior between both models.


# of Tweets # of Followers

@anilmdave Feb-11 654 14.4K

@moefcc July-14 1435 9166

Table 14Twitter Demographic Information for the MoEFCC




Each of the Twitter accounts representing the MoEFCC exhibit tendencies of ‘Managerial’ and ‘Consultative’ civic engagement models. As a result, the engagement in likes and retweets matches the potential fallouts of such models. However, the likes and retweets numbers diff er in trends that normally fi t one of the models over the other.

As a policy oriented agency, engagement is essential to encourage adoption of new policies and societal changes. However, both models can potentially suff er from low levels of citizen engagement. The standard errors of likes show that the number of likes a tweet receives are relatively consistent but the average shows very low levels of engagement. Retweets, however, vary wildly and seem to showcase inconsistent engagement.

SummaryIn conclusion, the Twitter accounts of the MoEFCC

embody two engagement models. This may be what has led to the varied standard deviations of likes and retweets. The Minister’s account has a higher and more varied demographic which can be consistent with the high percentage of ‘Greetings’ and ‘Congratulations’ tweets. Overall, this case study showcases how policy oriented ministries can possess inconsistent engagement levels. Further studies comparing this data to ‘approval ratings’ could elaborate further.



0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50


CongratulationsGreetingsFeedback

InformationQuote

ReminderResponse

Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change Tweets % by Category

@moefcc @anilmdave

Table 15% share of Tweets from each MoEFCC Twitter Handle within certain categories


g g


@moefcc Consultative Engagement Model

@anilmdave Managerial/Consultative Engagement Model



Twitter Handle

Likes STD.ERROR

Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@anilmdave Low Low Medium High

@moefcc Low Low Low Low



AbstractAs a cabinet-level ministry, the Ministry of Finance has

a deep array of responsibilities and impacts. As a result, this case study will fi rst clarify which aspects of the Ministry will be analyzed for the sake of Twitter communication. It will then seek to categorize the actual tweets from a randomly sampled subset of tweets and then identify which form of civic engagement and organizational learning is utilized by both Twitter handles associated with this agency. Finally, a clarifi cation on the statistical diff erences between both handles will allow for a better understanding of the communities that follow each, respectively.


The Ministry of Finance has a large number of responsibilities and is divided into 5 diff erent departments-The Department of Economic Aff airs, The Department of Expenditure, The Department of Revenue, The Department of Financial Services, and The Department of Disinvestment. The most well-known responsibility of the MoF is the formulation and presentation of the budget. Apart from this function, the MoF is also responsible for the formulation of various fi scal and monetary policies, and the management of external debt.27



The use of Twitter, and other forms of social media by the various ministries has fastened and improved its communication with the citizens. The MoF has presented the budget on a yearly basis and has implemented various fi scal and monetary policies which have a direct impact on the citizens. Thus, this report would classify the services off ered by the MoF within a policy oriented role.


Case Study: Ministry of Finance



hat model of citizen engagement/organisational



All the three models show the various degrees to which the government encourages the participation of citizens to better the off ered services. The MoF is primarily responsible for policy formulation and implementation, which is why the participatory model would be the most appropriate for citizen engagement.28 The participatory model facilitates a multi-directional fl ow of information between the government and the stakeholders rather than a unidirectional one.29 The data collected from the stakeholders would help in shaping various policies. Stakeholders would also question why various policies were implemented, which would result in an increase in transparency, which lead to the betterment of the ministry as a whole. Thus, the most appropriate method of organisational learning would be a double-looped one.

Part Two: The MoF boasts two active and largely followed Twitter

handles: @FinMinIndia and @arunjaitley. Respectively, they maintain 670 thousand and 7.32 million followers for close to 8 million accounts together. However, as is the case with many other ministries, the Minister’s handle – with 7.32 million followers – is substantially larger than the ministry’s. Table 17 shows that this has also been achieved while publishing far fewer tweets overall. It is important to realize that the audience for @FinMinIndia and @arunjaitley are also diff erent, as the former relates solely to MoF matters and the latter utilizes his account to publish notices not just on MoF matters but also Ministry of Defense issues.


Twitter handles?

Overall, both MoF handles tend to prioritize ‘Announcement’ and ‘Information’ tweets. When combined with the relative lack of ‘Response’ or ‘Feedback’ tweets, it would appear that both accounts are utilizing a ‘Managerial Model’ of engagement. Any information brought up in engagement via Twitter is directed in a single-loop model from the Ministry to the citizens. @FindMinIndia exemplifi es this most of

28 (Kakabadse, Kakabadse, and Kouzmin 2003)

29 (Chadwick and May n.d.)


@FinMinIndia Jul-14 7,217 670K

@arunjaitley Nov-13 1865 7.32M

Table 18Twitter Demographic Information for the MoF



all with over 80% of all the analyzed tweets falling within one of those two categories.

The Minister, however, has a diff erent tendency that may point towards his much larger twitter following, despite substantially less overall posts. While @arunjaitley does employ ‘Announcement’ and ‘Information’ posts quite frequently, ‘Greetings’ represent nearly 30% of his communication. When juxtaposed to @FinMinIndia with less than 5% ‘Greetings’ tweets, this may act as a distinguishing factor for the handles.

However, despite this diff erence, both accounts have little ‘Feedback’ or ‘Response’ themed tweets and instead rely on spreading information in single-loop systems. This points to a ‘Managerial Model’ of civic engagement.


The issue commonly associated with ‘Managerial Models’ is low engagement, as individuals feel less empowered to impact discussions due to not having all the information available. Despite that, Table 21 shows that @FinMinIndia’s likes have a relatively www.cpc-analytics.com | [email protected]

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Announcement

Advocacy

Congratulatio…

Feedback

Greetings

Information

Reminder

Response

Quote

Ministry of Finance Tweets % by Category

@FinMinIndia @arunjaitley

Table 19% share of Tweets from each MoF Twitter Handle within certain categories




@FinMinIndia Managerial Engagement Model

@arunjaitley Managerial Engagement Model




lower standard errors as does its retweets. This points to a more consistent level of engagement. However, when one considers the averages for each metric, it would point to a higher performance with retweets. One possibility for this could have to do with the period of demonetization when @FinMinIndia was actively engaged in spreading information.

@arunjaitley, however, experiences a far larger standard error in liked tweets while having less overall retweets. An explanation for this could be due to the large number of community-based ‘Greetings’ and ‘Congratulations’ tweets which attract a lot of attention and had a very high average number of likes. What this shows, however, is that the standard error of likes for all tweets from the Minister are very spread out, pointing to relatively inconsistent engagement.

SummaryIn conclusion, the Twitter accounts employ the

‘Managerial Model’ of civic engagement. Information is distributed in a single-loop learning model to update citizens on issues, events and policies from the Ministry. There is less focus on debating policy with the Twitter community, instead choosing to merely inform. The Minister experiences far more engagement overall, but it is revealed that this may be due to being responsible for multiple ministries and for the high level of goodwill tweets sent from his handle.


Twitter Handle

Likes STD.ERROR

Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@FinMinIndia Low Low Low High

@arunjaitley High Very High Low High



AbstractThe Ministry of Power has a host of responsibilities

that require international, domestic, inter-state and intra-state communication strategies. The fi rst part of this case study will be evaluating and defi ning the roles which will be assessed for civic engagement via Twitter. The actual published tweets from both MoP accounts will then be categorized and evaluated to determine what organizational learning model and civic engagement model the MoP may be utilizing in its current communication. Finally, the statistics of those tweets will be considered in order to identify distinctions between both accounts.

What are the primary responsibilities

of the Ministry?

As the main aim of this report is to address the signifi cance of social media interaction between citizens and the various ministries in India, it is important to fi rst get a clear understanding of the responsibilities of the ministry being studied. The primary responsibility of the MoP is the formulation and implementation of policies and projects in the fi eld of the energy (E.g.-electricity, coal). It also accepts and reviews policies related to energy.30



For social media communication to be eff ective, it is important for the citizens to understand the services provided by a certain ministry. The MoP has fulfi lled its responsibilities by developing and implementing various schemes and policies like the Electricity Act (2003) and the Energy Conservation Act (2001) that aim at energy conservation and energy effi ciency. Thus, this report would classify the services off ered by the MoT within a policy oriented role.


Case Study: Ministry of Power






All the three models show the various degrees as to which the government encourages the participation of citizens to better the off ered services. In the Managerial model, the citizens are merely viewed as customers and there exists a unidirectional fl ow of information from the government to the citizens. Since the MoP has a policy oriented role, it would require the views and participation of its stakeholders to help shape the various policies that could further be implemented. Thus, the ‘Consultative Model’ would fi t best as it would allow stakeholders to engage with the information posted by the Ministry and provide useful feedback. In this model, the data collected from the communication with the stakeholders via Twitter would be used for policy improvement and shaping new policies. Hence, the most appropriate method of organisational learning would be a single-looped one.

Twitter Analysis:The MoP maintains two Twitter handles, one for

Minister Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyalOff c) and the other for the Ministry (@MinofPower) itself. Piyush Goyal’s twitter handle @PiyushGoyalOff c has 16,700 followers. On the other hand, @MinofPower has 88,200 followers on Twitter, even though the account has lesser tweets than the Minister’s account.

Looking at Table 1, the Ministry seems to be more popular, but why? To understand this distinction the Tweets from each account have been categorized per the framework addressed in the methodology.

The most common type of tweet from both the accounts fi ts within the ‘Announcement category, in which the Minister and the Ministry inform the stakeholders about various schemes and programmes that are being implemented by the Ministry. The Ministry and the Minister also have common tweets under the ‘Information’ category, where they tweet about various facts pertaining to their responsibilities. As seen in the graph above, the Ministry seems to prefer ‘Announcements’ related to its tasks, and the Minister prefers communicating via the ‘Quote’ category of tweets to stakeholders. However, the two have very low rates of ‘Response’ tweets. Only 1 % of both the Ministry and the Ministers tweets are in the form of responses.


# of Tweets

# of Followers

@MinofPower Jun-14 1,446 88.2K

@ PiyushGoyalOff c Apr-16 3490 16.7K

Table 22Twitter Demographic Information for the MoP




Twitter handles?

As mentioned above, both the offi cial accounts of the MoP and Piyush Goyal share ‘’Announcement’ as their most common type of tweet (26 % @MinofPower and 17% @PiyushGoyalOff c). This is consistent with the ‘Managerial Model’ of citizen engagement in which the information is presented to the stakeholders in a ‘single loop learning’ manner. Emphasis isn’t on whether a certain policy should exist, but how citizens can best take advantage and be aware of such policies. The Minister’s large percentage share of ‘Quote’ tweets also confi rms the Managerial Model.


Social Media thrives off of the idea that individuals can control or, at least, aff ect the fl ow of information. Both @MinofPower and @ PiyushGoyalOff c, are experiencing one of the obstacles that come with a ‘Managerial Model’: incentivizing citizen engagement. While the standard error of the Ministry’s received likes and retweets suggests a consistent level


0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Announcement

Advocacy

Congratulations

Feedback

Greetings

Information

Reminder

Response

Quote

Ministry of Power Tweets % by Category

@MinistryofPower @PiyushGoyalOffc

Table 23% share of Tweets from each MoP Twitter Handle within certain categories




of engagement the means also show that such engagement is quite low. |

Similarly, the Minister Piyush Goyal exemplifi es the ‘Managerial Model’ of citizen engagement and exhibits similar consistent but low overall engagement, relative to the overall followers. As this model only allows for the unidirectional fl ow of information from the government to its stakeholders it needs to be considered before initiating any campaigns.

SummaryIn conclusion, the MoP focuses on informing their

stakeholders about the various policies it formulates and implements, and about the various events and meetings that occur between the minister and other governing bodies. Both the Minister and Ministry follow the ‘Managerial Model’ of citizen engagement and as noted above, there exists a constant but low level of citizen engagement. To improve the communication between the two, the Consultative Model should be used in which the inputs and suggestions given by the stakeholders in comments via Twitter would help the MoP shape policies and improve the existing policies as well. Thus, a single-looped method of organisational learning would be the most appropriate for the MoP.



Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@ MinofPower Low Low Low Low

@ PiyushGoyalOff c Low Low Low Low



AbstractThe Ministry of Health & Family operates under

the mission of improving the health of the 1.3 billion Indian citizens within the country. This is an enormous undertaking requiring distinct levels of communication and outreach. This report will seek to identify the primary responsibilities most oriented towards citizens and classify the functions of its mandate. It will then evaluate a randomly sampled subset of tweets from both Twitter handles associated with the ministry. The tweets will be categorized and used to identify the current engagement model at use. Finally, statistics on likes and retweets will be compared alongside these categories to determine the eff ect that communication may be having on engagement with the populous.

What are the primary responsibilities of the

Ministry?

The Ministry of Health & Family is headed by Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda and has been divided into two departments-The Department of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Health Research. The Ministry has a large number of responsibilities. However, to make it easier to understand, the report has condensed all the responsibilities into 3 major ones. The fi rst responsibility of the MoHF is to promote research in the fi eld of medicine and nutrition. The second is the implementation of schemes and programmes related to health like the National Programme for Control of Blindness. The last responsibility is to formulate policies and co-ordinate and form liaisons with international bodies regarding family welfare and health.31


Case Study: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare





Various forms of social media like Twitter and Facebook can be used to strengthen the communication between the citizens and the ministries under the central government. It is imperative that the citizens to understand the role and responsibilities of the Ministries for the communication between the two to be eff ective and have a positive outcome. Due to the previously stated responsibilities, this report will rely on the services off ered by the MoHFW to classify it within a ‘Service delivery function’ oriented role, as a majority of its responsibilities are in the form of services.




As the MoHF has a service and delivery oriented role, it would be important to keep getting inputs from the stakeholders about possible new schemes that could be introduced and possible changes that could be made to the existing ones. Thus, the ‘Participatory Model’ would be the most appropriate model for citizen engagement. The ‘double-looped’ method of organisational learning would be the most benefi cial for the MoHF as it would facilitate the multi directional fl ow of information between citizens and itself, which is needed to help it to improve the services it off ers.

Twitter Analysis: The MoHFW boasts strong following between

the two primary Twitter handles most commonly associated with it. The ministry’s began in June 2014 and has amassed a large following of 690,000 accounts. Meanwhile, Minister Nadda did not join until the January of 2015 but has still benefi ts from 115,000 followers.

The interesting notion pointed out in Table 25, is that the Minister is less popular and has produced signifi cantly less tweets than the ministry account. The trend from other ministries more commonly embodies the opposite.


handles?

This report has classifi ed the MoHFW under ‘service-delivery’ in which it stresses informing the public on how to increase their health and well-being while advocating the reasons why they should


@MoHFW_INDIA Jun-14 10.9K 690K

@JPNadda Jan-15 6617 115K

Table 26Twitter Demographic Information for the MoHFW



adopt such practices. Commonly, this priority is accompanied by ‘Managerial Models’ of engagement and that is precisely what the ministry and the minister’s Twitter accounts appear to use in their posts. @MoHFW_INDIA overwhelmingly prefers ‘Information’ tweets that stress health facts, hoping to change citizens’ behavior.

@JPNadda shares these trends, favoring ‘Information’ and ‘Advocacy’ tweets to update citizens on health strategies and new systems available to them thanks to the MoHFW. At the same time, the Minister boasts large percentages of ‘Response’ and ‘Congratulations’ tweets, demonstrating a more individualized approach to engagement.


Both handles of the MoHFW display ‘Managerial Model’ civic engagement through ‘single-loop’ organizational learning channels. Information is directed from the ministry to the public, not often the other way around. This has the tendency to limit the level of engagement that posts may experience. In regard to consistency Table 29 shows that the standard error of likes is relatively low. This means that there is relatively consistent engagement with


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Announcement

Advocacy

Congratulations

Feedback

Greetings

Information

Quote

Reminder

Response

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Tweet % by Category

@MoHFW_INDIA @JPNadda

Table 27% share of Tweets from each MoHFW Twitter Handle within certain categories



such tweets for those who do interact. The standard error of retweets is on par for both

handles when compared to the likes. @JPNadda’s is likes are consistent with the ministry’s but the retweets have much larger engagement overall. This is something to consider given the objective of this medium of communication is to engage the public in health advice.

SummaryIn conclusion, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

utilizes the ‘Managerial Model’ of civic engagement through both of its twitter handles. They utilize ‘single-loop’ learning channels via ‘Information’, ‘Announcement’ and ‘Advocacy’ tweets. This is done to maximize health awareness amongst the respective communities. However, as a controlled information system, directed from the government, these handles and engagement models struggle with incentivizing engagement. While @MoHFW_INDIA seems to struggle in this regard with Retweets, @JPNadda experiences inconsistent but high engagement levels. Considering the much lower number of followers, this may point to the idea that public offi cials are more comparatively attractive on social media platforms due to the perceived transparency stems from social media activity.

Twitter Handle Likes STD.ERROR

Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@MoHFW_INDIA Low Low Low Low

@JPNadda Low Low Low High




@MoHFW_INDIA Managerial Engagement Model

@JPNadda Managerial Engagement Model





AbstractThis case study will seek to prioritize the responsibilities

and perceived intentions of the Ministry of Railways. It will work to identify the popularity of Suresh Prabhu and the ministry, while simultaneously categorizing each of their tweets for clarifi cation. This will reveal which civic engagement models are being used and to what eff ect they be related to one another.


Ministry?

The Ministry of Railways is headed by Minister Suresh Prabhu. The Ministry has four responsibilities. However, its primary responsibility is to manage all the matters related to the railway system in India, which also includes the railway revenues and expenditure. It is responsible for passing laws and regulations with respect to safety, rates, pensions and fares of the railway system.32



For there to exist a strong form of communication between the Ministry and the citizens via social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, there fi rst needs to be a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the ministry. As stated above, the MoR addresses all the issues concerned with the railway system in India and also keeps track of its expenditure and revenue. The Indian Railways is used by a large proportion of the Indian population for commute and the Ministry directly deals with the issues pertaining to this system.Thus, this report will classify the services off ered by the MoR within a ‘Service Delivery’ oriented role.


Case Study: Ministry of Railways






As mentioned above, the MoR has a service oriented role, and hence would require constant input from the stakeholders to improve their services and suggest new ones. Thus, the participatory model for citizen engagement would fi t best in the case of MoR. This would facilitate the multi-directional fl ow of information between the MoR and its stakeholders via Twitter and other social networking sites. The most appropriate method of organisational learning would be a double-looped one. This type of learning would help the stakeholders to challenge the existing operations of the MoR and would lead to better organisational outcomes.

Twitter Analysis: The Railway Ministry and Minister Prabhu operate

two of the most followed Twitter accounts in the Indian government. Each maintain followings of over 2.5 million accounts even though the latter has substantially less overall published Tweets. There is a distinct reason for this, however, as each handle has a unique purpose behind its communication.

Frequently hailed internally and externally as one of the most responsive ministries on social media, the Railway Ministry has culminated a dynamic online community.


handles?

Most Indian agencies tend to experience some degree of overlap in the content of their Twitter postings. The MoR, however, is the complete opposite. Table 30 showcases how @RailMinIndia almost solely deals with direct citizen engagement via ‘Response’ and ‘Feedback’ tweets. This coincides with the ‘service delivery orientation’ that this case study previously attributed to the MoR. With nearly 60% of analyzed tweets fi tting within the ‘Response’ category and another 42% identifying as seeking ‘Feedback’ from citizens, @RailMinIndia can be said to exemplify double-loop organizational learning channels alongside the ‘Participatory Model’ of civic engagement. @sureshpprabhu, on the other hand, prioritizes ‘Announcements’ and ‘Information’ over the responsive strategy of its peer. This seems to fi ll the void left by @RailMinIndia and aims to


@RailMinIndia Jul-14 302K 2.62M

@sureshpprabhu May-10 33.8K 2.71M

Table 30Twitter Demographic Information for the MoR



separate complaints from updates. In this sense, @sureshpprabhu exhibits the more commonly used ‘Managerial Model’ of civic engagement due to little responsive action and a single-loop information channel.


‘Participatory Models’ are complex civic engagement systems that are not well understood at present time. There is debate on what actually facilitates such communities and how such systems should be evaluated. In the case of @RailMinIndia, the genuine desire and prompt response to any and all concerns from citizens seems to drive engagement. As the standard errors for likes and retweets is quite low it shows a consistent trend in engagement that can only be fully interpreted when looking at the total number of tweets – as seen in Table 30.

With over 300,000 tweets since July 2014, it would make sense to have relatively low numbers of likes and retweets as almost all posts are personal complaints and not really meant to appeal to wide audiences. Individuals feel empowered to change MoR actions by interacting with it on Twitter and fully employ double-loop learning systems that require constant monitoring from the ministry.


0 10 20 30 40 50 60


CongratulationsFeedbackGreetings

InformationQuote

ReminderResponse

Ministry of Railways Tweet % by Category

@RailMinIndia @sureshpprabhu

Table 31% share of Tweets from each MoR Twitter Handle within certain categories



@RailMinIndia Participatory Engagement Model

@sureshpprabhu Managerial Engagement Model





Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@RailMinIndia Low Low Low Low

@sureshpprabhu Low High High Medium



The minister’s account is a bit more varied with relatively larger standard deviations for likes and retweets. However, given the nature of his tweets it is natural to have a larger and more inconsistent level of engagement. This is the behavior that stems from ‘Managerial Models.’

SummaryIn conclusion, the Railway Ministry has completely

separated the tasks of the two primary Twitter handles associated with it. By doing this it has maintained relatively similar levels of Twitter follower growth and ensured consistent interactions. The community that has stemmed from the ‘double-loop’ process of @RailMinIndia has led to online forums discussion, memes and pride to have a ministry like this. However, due to the high rate of response and feedback posts, it is important to realize this cannot be achieved without incredible internal monitoring and communication to manage the thousands of questions and fl ood of information directed from citizens.



AbstractThis case study will seek to identify and categorize the

responsibilities of the Ministry of Urban Development to identify what engagement models are currently being used on Twitter. The two primary accounts associated with the ministry will be analyzed and their tweets assessed into specifi c themes to identify trends consistent with one of the three forms of civic engagement. Additionally, descriptive statistics on likes and retweets will then show how actively the public interacts with these Twitter handles which will better inform ministry strategy for future outreach.


Ministry?

Urban development in India is a state subject. However, the Ministry of Urban Development, which is under the Central Government plays a huge role in urban development through centrally sponsored programmes and schemes. An example of one of the schemes implemented by the MoUD is the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) Scheme, which aims at developing heritage cities.The MoUD has several responsibilities which can be broadly be categorised under two major ones. The fi rst responsibility of the MoUD is to formulate policies in the area of Urban Development which includes Urban Transport. The second responsibility of the MoUD is to co-ordinate with, monitor and supervise the respective state governments for various schemes aimed at urban development.33


Case Study: Ministry of Urban Development





Various forms of social media like Twitter and Facebook can be used to strengthen the communication between the citizens and the ministries under the central government. The citizens need to understand the role and responsibilities of the Ministries under the Central Government for the communication between the two to be eff ective and have a positive outcome. As stated above, the MoUD co-ordinates and supervises various schemes that the state undertakes and also funds many of them. Thus, this report will classify the services off ered by the MoUD within a ‘Coordination and Supervision’ oriented role.




As the MoUD is primarily responsible for co-ordination and supervision of schemes that are implemented at a state level, the Consultation model would be the most appropriate for citizen engagement. This would help the Ministry gain the inputs of the stakeholders about the various schemes that have been implemented or are to be implemented. Thus, the most appropriate method of organisational learning would be a single-looped one which would help the Ministry to understand the views and opinions of the stakeholders on the services off ered by the Ministry.

Twitter Analysis: Assuming offi ce in May 2014, Minister Naidu has

amassed a large Twitter following close to 500,000 accounts. At the same time, the ministry has reached a milestone of over 10,000 followers. While part of the Minister’s popularity stems from the fact that he represents not just the MoUD but also the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, it is clear that Mr. Naidu benefi ts from more popularity. Other ministries experiencing similar popularity discrepancies usually do so due to content variations between the Twitter handles. This often reveals the engagement models used by the respective accounts.

Twitter Handle Date Joined # of Likes # of Followers

@Moud_India Jul-14 2,678 10.1K

@MVenkaiahNaidu Aug-13 5,975 488K

Table 34Twitter Demographic Information for the MoUD




handles?

Both accounts favor ‘single-loop’ learning communication channels where information originates from their accounts. Roughly 85% of @Moud_India’s tweets fall within “Announcement’ and ‘Information’ categories. This is consistent with a ‘Managerial Model.’ However, 7% are classifi ed as ‘Feedback’ tweets seeking public opinion over policies and initiatives from the ministry. When this is combined with the fact that the majority of the analyzed content in the ministry’s tweets consist of updates on government initiatives not on particular services it will be considered as a ‘Consultative Model’ of civic engagement.

@MvenkaiahNaidu shares the preference for updates and announcements with @Moud_India. However, it varies from the ministry’s account with large percentages of personalized ‘Greetings’ and ‘Congratulations’ posts. This may point to the popularity that the minister receives as these tweets experience the largest number of likes in comparison to its peers. Due to these factors and the classifi cation of the MoUD in a coordination and/or supervisory


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Announcement

Advocacy

Congratulations

Feedback

Greetings

Information

Quote

Reminder

Response

Ministry of Urban Development Tweets % by Category

@Moud_India @MvenkaiahNaidu

Table 35% share of Tweets from each MoUD Twitter Handle within certain categories



capacity, this report would attribute the Minister’s communication habits to a ‘Consultative Model’ of civic engagement.


‘Consultative Models’ tend to be more interactive than ‘Managerial Models’ but still struggle with incentivizing citizen engagement. Because information is still directed in a ‘single-loop’ system and does not originate from the public, it can be diffi cult to encourage discussion. This is an advantage for the MoUD’s coordinative actions, as there are not direct services that need to be evaluated by the public in an immediate sense.

In the case of @Moud_India, there exists a relatively consistent level of engagement as seen by the smaller standard error values, however the averages indicate low overall engagement. @MvenkaiahNaidu’s standard errors are also quite low and are paired with high or medium averages, respectively. This shows a higher level of engagement with the Minister. This should be taken in to consideration when seeking public opinions.

SummaryIn conclusion, the Ministry of Urban Development

employs ‘Consultative Models’ of engagement through its two primary Twitter handles. Despite utilizing the same models, content is diff erent between the ministry’s and the Minister’s actual tweets. It is important to realize that this is not just a result of strategy but necessity, as Minister Naidu uses his account for two distinct agencies. Additionally, there appears to be relatively consistent levels of engagement for likes and retweets which should be considered when asking for public opinion or sourcing information on future policies or initiatives.



@Moud_India Consultative Engagement Model

@MvenkaiahNaidu Consultative Engagement Model





Likes Mean

Retweets STD.ERROR

Retweets Mean

@Moud_India Low Low Low Low

@MvenkaiahNaidu Low High Low Medium



Abstract What are the primary responsibilities of the ministry?

The Ministry of Tourism (MoT) maintains three overarching responsibilities. First, it must support the development and promotion of Tourism throughout India. Secondly, the MoT should foster international cooperation within the tourism fi eld itself. Lastly, the MoT manages the India Tourism Development Corporation and various other autonomous institutes within its relative realm of control. Organizational learning models, as will be evaluated within this case study, are heavily reliant on the organization in question’s capacity to evaluate itself and respond to shifts in knowledge. These three tasks, such as they are, represent a broad enough scope of authority and scale to warrant this type of an analysis.



In order to fulfi ll its mandate, the MoT has developed a wide array of sub-departments, interagency/interagency partnerships and invested in public-private-partnerships. These professional networks give rise to internal review processes that push for collaborative problem solving; however, they do require specifi c contexts. The MoT functions by creating the policy and guidelines that enable such contexts. This is important to identify as experts within this fi eld have warned that shifting between contexts or roles may cause these communities to break down and become ineffi cient.34 As such, this report would classify the services rendered by the MoT within a coordination and supervisory role.


Case Study: Ministry of Tourism




learning would be most appropriate given this


The fundamental diff erence between the three organizational learning models is the perception of infl uence that government entities would like to bestow upon citizens. Given this distinction and the MoTs mandate to foster development and international collaboration in tourism, a double-loop communication model may not be appropriate. In fact, it is precisely due to these more abstract services that a consultative approach may function best. In such models, the emphasis on citizen engagement relies on sourcing the public’s input for better policy-making.

Twitter Analysis: The two primary Twitter accounts associated with

the MoT have very strong followings. They are even renowned amongst internal reviews as one of the top performing ministries on Twitter within the Indian government. Minister Sharma even ranked as the fourth most effi cient on the social media platform.35

35 (Singh 2016)


@tourismgoi Jan-13 4328 66.7K

@dr_maheshsharma Feb-12 6551 88K

Table 38Twitter Demographic Information for the MoT


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Announcement

Advocacy

Congratulations

Feedback

Greetings

Information

Quote

Reminder

Response

Ministry of Tourism Tweets % by Category

@tourismgoi @dr_maheshsharma

Table 39% share of Tweets from each MoT Twitter Handle within certain categories




handle?

Through analyzing the MoT’s two accounts it is apparent that they, like many other ministries, favor ‘Announcement,’ ‘Advocacy,’ and ‘Information’ tweets. In regard to @tourismgoi, the lack of two-way tweets, such as ‘Response’ or ‘Feedback’ tweets, would suggest a ‘Managerial Model.’ When looking at the actual content of the ministry’s tweets, almost all of the ‘Advocacy’ tweets consist of pictures or recommendations for places to travel throughout India. Likewise, the two other major categories focus on facts about destinations in India and how to get there. As such, it appears that @tourismgoi is using a ‘Managerial Model’ to convince individuals to utilize the tourism options available throughout the country.

@dr_maheshsharma’s most frequent tweets mimic those of @tourismgoi, however, it diff ers with much larger percentages of interactive tweets. ‘Congratulations’ tweets tend to focus on discussions on Twitter with community members and the ‘Feedback’ posts often serve the same purpose. As such, it can be said that the Minister is utilizing a ‘Consultative Model’ of engagement.


The standard deviations of these Twitter handles demonstrate the intricacies of the content of the handle’s tweets. Many of the posts from @tourismgoi and @dr_maheshsharma could be interpreted as destination marketing posts as they are primarily pictures of places to visit in India. These types of posts don’t off er a tremendous amount of opportunity for discourse or dialogue on policies.

This illustrates the risks and benefi ts associated with ‘Managerial’ and ‘Consultative’ methods. @tourismgoi may have a low standard deviation showing consistently similar interactions, but the average number of likes per post is extremely small. Meanwhile @dr_maheshsharma is much more varied in standard deviation and averages. This demonstrates varied engagement between extreme highs and extreme lows.




@tourismgoi Managerial Engagement Model

@dr_maheshsharma Consultative Engagement Model


Table 41Standard deviation and Mean of Tweets’ likes and retweets

Twitter HandleLikes STD.DEV

Likes Mean

Retweets STD.DEV

Retweets Mean

@tourismgoi Low Low High High

@dr_maheshsharma High High High High

SummaryDespite the risks of low engagement and one-way information

fl ows, the MoT could use these models to direct conversations towards their broad range of policies and initiatives. It can source information from individuals to assess the relative approval of their current policies and allow them to hear how certain policies are received. An example of this lies in a Tweet by the Minister regarding Yoga’s induction into UNESCOs “Intangible Pieces of Cultural Heritage.”

Positive and negative sentiments allow the MoT and Minister Sharma to refl ect on these policies and nurture a community. However, the issue still does remain that these methods will rely on citizens deciding to engage in the policy discussion itself as can be seen by the relatively low totals in Twitter likes and engagement.



Takeaway #1: It is essential that Ministers operate

Twitter accounts separate from the ministry’s in order to

nurture transparent and accountable sentiments.

A common trend throughout these case studies showed how the Twitter handles of Ministers were often dramatically more popular than the handle for the ministry under their care. The few exceptions occurred with the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. There are several possible reasons for this. It could be due to the nature of their respective engagement models. A number of Minister accounts were identifi ed to exhibit ‘Participatory’ or ‘Consultative’ traits through their Twitter account. This is known to have a better chance at incentivizing engagement due to the looser restrictions on information fl ow.

The most likely reason stems from the perceived impact of a Twitter presence by government offi cials. Since 2015, Sushma Swaraj’ account has become synonymous with personalized communication with citizens; this has helped her reach an impressive 7.7 million followers. This type of dialogue has been shown in multiple studies to act as an anti-corruption tool and increase transparency amongst government offi cials.36 As mentioned before, this is an enormous concern within India and is a strong determinant for why Minister’s tend to have larger Twitter followings: people want to feel that these offi cials are accountable to the public.

Takeaway #2:Twitter handles for ministries and Ministers

need their posts to be specialized and distinct from one

another.

There is a general trend amongst the observed ministry Twitter accountsto prefer ‘Managerial Models’ and single-loop organizational learning systems. This is consistent with studies that have shown a default preference for these methods amongst government agencies.37 It is used to manage the large networks under their care.Of the 10 analyzed in this report 7 maintained ‘Managerial Models’.

Many Ministers, on the other hand frequently employed ‘Consultative’ or ‘Participatory’ methods, pointing towards their higher popularity. Additionally, there is a trend that can be observed through the overall Twitter following of handles based on the engagement models that are employed. The ministries that distinguish the content of the ministry’s handle from that of

36 (Bertot, Jaeger, and Grimes 2010b)


the Minister’s tend to have larger overall audiences.The Railway Ministry is a prime example of this where @RailMinIndia is almost entirely ‘Participatory’, answering individual complaints and grievances from citizens instead of issuing general ‘Feedback’ requests on how to improve services as a whole. @sureshpprabhu, on the other hand, is a ‘Managerial Model’ that primarily seeks to update constituents on the activities and changes occurring throughout the country’s railway system.

The Ministry of External Aff airs and Sushma Swaraj utilize a similar system with @SushmaSwaraj practicing a ‘Participatory Model’ and @MEAIndia preferring ‘Managerial’ engagement. The former’s engagement primarily revolves around responding to complaints and concerns from Indians abroad and delegating those concerns to the appropriate actors. @MEAIndia serves as the information source of the MEA and primarily posts ‘Announcement’ and ‘Information’ tweets.

These two ministries may use diff erent engagement models but they both make sure to distinguish the content of their ministries’ respective accounts. As they are both frequently ranked as the most engaging and responsive in the Indian government it would be wise for other Ministers to follow suit.38

Takeaway #3: Ministers need to prioritize ‘Congratulations,’

‘Greetings,’ and ‘Response’ tweets. Ministries should

prioritize ‘Announcement’ and ‘Information’ tweets.

Engagement models are not purely governed by the type of tweets a handle may send out. Additionally, the type of tweet does not ensure high engagement. For example, this report has found that ‘Responses’ have very little retweet or like potential; however, accounts with high ‘Response’ percentages always have more followers than their colleagues.

Additionally, the most attractive Minister tweets amongst citizens are those that identify or mention the citizens directly. ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Greetings’ tweets consistently rank as highly engaging posts by each of the ministry heads. However, Ministers do not tend to use them as often as the other categories. This should become a constant practice to increase

the sense of accountability amongst the public.

Additionally, an average of 80% of all tweets analyzed across the 10 case studies were tweeted in English. The one anomaly came from the MoAFW with an average of 47% English tweets combined with a large Twitter following and large ‘Response’

38 (Singh 2016)

Primary Takeaways



percentage. It may be wise to adapt regional communication in community-oriented tweets, as well.

Ministries, on the other hand are unable to nurture that same level of engagement from ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Greetings’ tweets but do respectively well with purely informative updates. ‘Announcement’ and ‘Information’ tweets consistently rank amongst the highest performing categories for these handles. This is rational as it updates citizens on the actual activities of the ministry beyond the activities of the Minister. It is a tenant in organizational learning and single-loop communication which can incentivize better e-governance.39This should remain a

staple of most ministries to nurture the sense of organizational

learning and transparency for citizens.

Takeaway #4: Formatting matters and tweets need to boast

images alongside their message.

Images tend to be used to the best eff ect in certain settings. For example, pictures containing infographics breaking down the complexities of a policy issue are best served in information posts. Additionally, pictures that showcase citizens and other groups are best utilized in ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Greetings’ posts. On average, these tweets far outperform non-imaged postings and is consistent with market trends showing similar habits for private sector Twitter accounts.40

39 (Michel 2005)

40 (Enge 2011)

Takeaway #5: Ministry and Minister handles should follow and

engage policy experts via Twitter.

One of the most powerful aspects of Twitter is the ability for one individual to generate a community or following around themselves and their train of thought. This directly relates to assertions made in Social Media Theory and Organizational Learning models that explain how individuals feel empowered and able to not just generate information for policymaking but also enact change.41However, as previously discussed, citizen engagement is the major weakness in single-loop communication strategies like ‘Managerial’ and ‘Consultative models.’ Experts, on the other hand, tend to maintain strong Twitter channels and interacting with these experts may help to generate a more consultative and engaged community within the ministry’s own Twitter handle.

Recent studies have showed that internet platforms have

decreased the discourse gap between experts and citizens

and now acts as a driving force of citizen engagement, which

can help agencies prepared and willing to participate.42 Of the ministries analyzed within this report, quotes or interactions with non-government experts barely ever occurred. Of the ministries analyzed within this report, quotes or interactions with non-government experts never went above 7% of total tweets and more often than not simply did not occur. Quoting and directly consulting these individuals via Twitter will not only help ministries crowd-source qualifi ed policy advice but also increase citizen engagement overall.


42 (Yang and Zhiyong Lan 2010)

Category Purpose Value Ministry Examples

Congratulations

Used to commend an individual or

specifi c group on achievements or

actions

Extremely high like and retweet numbers,

plus extreme engagement

Service-oriented ministries: MoR, MoAFW,

MoHFW

Greetings

Used to thank, welcome, cheer or speak

out to a specifi c community that the

ministry interacts with

Extremely high like and retweet numbers,

accountability sentiments

Coordinative/wide impact ministries with many

unique stakeholders: MoT, MoUD,

ResponseUsed to resolve, understand, and initiate

dialogue with constituents directly

Increases sense of accountability and

transparency, plus followers

All Minister or Ministry accounts depending on

how responsibilities are distributed

Advocacy

Used to encourage citizens to adopt

certain policy changes or change overall

behavior

High like and retweet numbers, plus

transparency increase

All Ministers should use this but most eff ective

with service-oriented ministries: MoHFW,

MoAFW

AnnouncementUsed to update citizens on past, current

or present events of note

Very high like and retweet numbers,

increases transparency sentiment

All ministry handles as it displays current events

and updates the populous.

Information

Used to convince citizens of the value of

policies or ministry actions through the

presentation of facts

Very high like and retweet numbers,

increases transparencyAll ministry handles

Table 42Primary tweet category recommended purpose and values



The advantages of social media use is a belief shared by Prime Minister Modi who has similarly noted the importance of social media engagement and seeks to utilize it for the betterment of India. Ministries have followed suit and amassed enormous followings over the last three years. This is not going to change and as the number of internet users grows in India, government offi cials will need to not just understand Twitter but any other social platforms that may arise to accommodate the over 700 million potential users. The fi ndings of these case studieswill serve as a framework to develop further engagement across all ministry Twitter communities. There are clear and distinct trends that each ministry exhibits and becoming aware of these trends will only aid these organizations in fulfi lling their mandates with public consensus. As such, the following proposals have been proposed:

It is essential that Ministers operate Twitter accounts separate 1. from the ministry’s in order to nurture transparent and accountable sentiments. Twitter handles for ministries and Ministers need their posts to 2. be specialized and distinct from one another. All ministries should employ 1 ‘Managerial model’ to evaluate 3. and increase service delivery. Additionally, the second handle, preferably the Minister, should be either a ‘Consultative’ or ‘Participatory model.’ Ministers need to prioritize ‘Congratulations,’ ‘Greetings,’ and 4. ‘Response’ tweets. Ministries should prioritize ‘Announcement’ and ‘Information’ tweets.Analysis has shown that tweets containing images receive 5.

higher levels of engagement than those without and as a result, tweets should display contextually relevant images with all posts. This report has found that the ‘Consultative Model’ is one 6. of the best models for nurturing civic engagement but has diffi culty incentivizing discussion. As a result, ministries and Ministers need to engage with non-government policy experts via Twitter in order to overcome this challenge and crowd-source policy advice. Ministers should not issue political opinions via their offi cial 7. ministry handle. This may alienate the overall populous and result in a less informed citizenship in terms of ministry activity. Recent studies have revealed that people may be more prone to ignore social media that discusses opposing political issues.43 Thus, it would be best for Ministers to create personal accounts for their political statements and leave their “Ministry” handle for ministry news. Ministries need organized, responsive and critical teams to 8. monitor Twitter responses. A product of ‘Consultative’ and ‘Participatory’ models is that citizens may become accustomed to prompt and eff ective communication. Building up ministry capacity in this regard, will manage this occurrence.

It is the aim of this report that early implementation of these 8 proposals will allow for Indian ministries to adapt to current trends, as discovered through our quantitative analysis.

43 (Bakshy, Messing, and Adamic 2015)

Policy Recommendations



At the current moment, there are roughly 22 million Twitter uses in India, produced from only a 31% internet penetration rate. It is expected that this penetration will increase drastically in the future with close to 500 million internet users by June 2017 and close to 60 – 20% internet penetration for the urban and rural communities, respectively.44 As the second largest Twitter community in Asia45, Indian citizens are well positioned to utilize this platform even more intensely in the future. Now is the time to prepare; media is an ever-changing community and it is essential to not fall behind trending exchanges between citizens.

However, it is important to note that the data sourced for this report is representative of central ministries and Minister Twitter handles. No state-level counterparts have been evaluated, as of yet. As such, the same recommendations provided here may not be entirely relevant to statewide engagement. This should be the next step in evaluating India’s governmental Twitter usage. It is quite possible that entirely diff erent variables aff ect state government accounts such as the language used in the Tweets (English vs. Regional) and the geographical origin of offi cials.

44 (Internet in India IAMAI-IMRB Report Internet in India – 2016 An IAMAI &; KANTAR IMRB Report n.d.)

45 (Huff post 2015)

Going forward, there are two pressing frameworks that

should be implemented:

State wide assessments should be conducted to ascertain 1. whether or not there is any discrepancy between Twitter engagement regionally, on the state level and at the central union level. Ministries need to document the activities and eff ects of 2. this report’s recommendations. These fi ndings should be published in a public-forum, bi-monthly, to better inform the academic community and the overall populous at large.

The current government has taken social media very seriously and India is primed to lead the way to many possible e-governance breakthroughs. It will be exciting to see how engagement and citizen demand evolves with an increased internet presence and increased internet capacity from the government. The only thing to do is to act and prepare.

Conclusions, Limitations & Steps For The Future



Below are particularly striking revelations found during the case studies of the 10 randomly selected ministries. These are contextually unique and depend on the specifi cs of each ministry and thus should not be used in a comparative nature.

Ministry of External Aff airs – The ‘Participatory Model’ of @sushmaswaraj prioritizes ‘Response’ and ‘Announcement’ tweets. Most ‘Announcement’ tweets tend to focus on ‘Managerial Model’ attributes, updating citizens on events and general activities of the ministry. @sushmaswaraj, however, uses these posts to update her following on how certain complaints or issues have been solved that originated from the ‘Response’ tweets. This has the eff ect of including her entire community on one policy matter and nurtures civic engagement.

Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare – The two handles of this ministry boast large percentages of ‘Information’ tweets. Additionally, @RadhamohanBJP issues a large volume of ‘Response’ tweets. However, due to the nature of the MoAFW’s services and their coordinative restrictions across state and central levels, most of these tweets focus on clarifying policies rather than solving direct complaints. It serves a largely informative and ‘Consultative’ role.

Ministry of Communication – At the time of this analysis, the MoC primarily used only one handle – which on its own is unique. Due to this, attempts are made to balance what appears to be a ‘Management Model’ with a more ‘Consultative’ approach all within one handle.

Ministry of the Environment, Forests & Climate

Change – Interestingly enough, the MoEFCC’s Minister Twitter handle, @anilmdave, has nearly 50% more followers than the ministry account while posting almost 50% less tweets overall. Additionally, many of these tweets are of the ‘Announcement’ category, which tend to vary wildly in engagement levels. Despite this, the account has generated such a relatively large following. This popularity, combined with the low level of activity, may point to the overall interest in environment as a policy concern.

Ministry of Finance – The accounts of the MoF benefi t from some of the highest followings and engagement amongst all the agencies evaluated

in this report. This is so, even though both handles employ strictly informational, 1-way content. This seems to defy the traditionally known pitfalls of similar ‘Managerial Models.’ The reason may stem from context and the market shock that has occurred from the Demonetization policy of November 2016. Still today, a majority of the content covers this topic. More research is required in this subject.

Ministry of Power – The accounts representing the Ministry of Power very rarely utilize ‘Response’ or individualized posts. Instead, they tend to favor informational updates and ‘Announcements’ about their accomplishments throughout the country. While this does not nurture much policy discourse it does seem to remain relatively popular amongst Twitter users as a source of updates on power development. This is exemplifi ed by the fact that @MinofPower maintains a following of 88.2K users while the Minister’s following is substantially smaller.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare – The tweets from the Health Ministry prioritize single-loop, informational content meant to improve health standards and awareness throughout the country. Like the MoP, Minister Nadda also has a relatively smaller following compared to the ministry’s offi cial handle. With that said they both retain very large followings and engagement patterns which may stem from the consistent use of infographics and imagery in most of their tweets.

Ministry of Railways – The offi cial handles of the MoR maintain the absolute largest volume of tweets amongst all the case studies. @RailMinIndia has posted over 300K tweets while the minister has almost reached 40K. This is refl ective of the specialized and extreme 2-way model utilized by the former’s account, which consists almost entirely of individualized ‘Response’ and ‘Feedback’ tweets. This points to the advantage of ‘Participatory Models’ of social media communication that enable dialogue.

Ministry of Urban Development – The accounts of the MoUD fi t the general trends found throughout the case studies: a more popular minister and high usage of ‘Information’ and ‘Announcement’ tweets. Where it diff ers is in the Minister’s large volume of ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Greetings’ posts – 30% of the total volume. This demonstrates the impact that

Ministry Specifi c Highlights



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community-oriented tweets can have on incentivizing engagement and the number of followers, even if one uses a single-loop communication model that usually results in the opposite.

Ministry of Tourism – The MoT is unique in that both its accounts share relatively similar levels of tweet volume and the number of followers. Although the Minister is still relatively more popular, it is not by the same degree as other agencies. This may stem from @tourismgoi’s unique use of ‘Advocacy’ tweets. These posts aim to

convince citizens to adopt new policies enacted by the agency involved. In this context, the MoT’s posts actually advocate travel and tourism, usually accompanied by a stunning image of whatever destination the ministry is discussing at that point. This may provide credence to the infl uence and power that images can possess in citizen engagement.

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This document does not constitute professional advice. The information in this document has been obtained or derived from sources believed by CPC Analytics to be reliable but CPC Analytics does not represent that this information is accurate or complete. Any opinions or estimates contained in this document represent the judgment of CPC Analytics at this time and are subject to change without notice. Readers of this publication are advised to seek their own professional advice before taking any course of action or decision, for which they are entirely responsible, based on the contents of this publication. CPC Analytics neither accepts or assumes any responsibility or liability to any reader of this publication in respect of the information contained within it or for any decisions readers may take or decide not to or fail to take.

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