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Signsoftrust.Investigatingsocialmediaasconnectiveenablers

betweenmunicipalitiesanddigitalpublics.

Alessandro Lovari (Ph.d), University of Cagliari (Italy)Letizia Materassi (Ph.d), University of Florence (Italy)

BledCom – Silver Edition – July 2018

Università di Cagliari

Signs of Trust#bledcom2018

IntroductionIna«VUCA»world,thestrategicuseofsocialmediaseemstoplaya

crucialroleinreconnectinggovernmentsandpublicsectororganizationswithcitizens.

Thisenthusiasmisnotoftensupportedbyempiricalstudiesaboutthecitizen’sperceptionofpublicsectortrustworthiness.

AsErmischandGambetta(2016)argued,«trustandtrustworthinessarenotionsnotaddressedin

general,butreferredtoaspecificcontextandrelationship.»

Wecoulddetecttrustonly“inaction”.


Aim ofthestudy

Detectingthe“signsoftrust”inthesocialmediaenvironmentinhabitedbyItalianmunicipalities.

“Signsoftrust”meansinvestigatingwhatleadscitizenstotrustortodistrustgovernmentintheirdailyinteractions(Cook,2001)


OFFLINE DIGITAL

Theoretical Framework

TheerosionofTRUSTininstitutions

Fukuyama,1995;Bacharach,Gambetta,2001;Ermisch,Gambetta,2016;Edelman,2018

SocialMediauseinthePublicSector

Communication

Bertot etal.,2010;Criado etal.,2013;Mergel,2013;Bonsòn,Royo,Ratkai,2014;Warrenetal.,2014;

Haro-de-Rosarioetal.,2018;Lovari&Valentini,2019

TheItalianscenario• SocialmediaadoptioninPublicSectorCommunication

• Digitalpublics’communicativebehaviors• Generaldistrustandgrowthofpopulistmovements


SocialMediaasenablersofconnectivity

Coleman2012;Lee&Kwak,2012;VanDijck&Poel,2013

Putnam,1993;D’Agostino,2013;Lovari,Parisi 2015;Censis 2017;Edelman,2018

ResearchQuestions• RQ1: Whoarecitizenswithhigherleveloftrustintheir

municipalities?AretheredifferencesintrustbetweenMunicipality’sFacebookpages’fansandFacebooknonusers?

• RQ2:WhicharethecommunicationbehaviorsthatcitizensperceiveasmorerelevantsignsoftrustwithintheirMunicipality’sFacebookpages?

• RQ3:Whicharethe“signsoftrust”thatcitizenswouldliketofindintheInstitutionalFacebookpagestoimprovetheirtrustinMunicipalities?


Methodology• June2018:web-survey(24questions)aimingatinvestigating

citizens’ perceptionofthequalityofdigitalmunicipalitycommunicationandatdetectingperceivedsignsoftrustwithinItalianMunicipalitiesFacebookLikePages.

• Identificationofsignsoftrustonsocialmediabasedonliteraturereview(Mergel 2013;Warrenetal.,2014;Bonson etal.,2015;Porumbescu,2016)

• Web-surveywaspublishedonFacebook,TwitterandLinkedIn,promotedbyItalianPublicSectorCommunicationAssociationsandbyseveraldigitalinfluencersviasocialmedia.

• Auto-selectedsample(Marradi,2004;Vehovar &Manfreda,2008)

FirstphaseofamorearticulatedstudyFindingsreferstofirst200citizenswhotookparttothesurvey


Findings:Respondents’profiles• Gender(▷ F),Age(▷ 25-54y),Education(++)

91.2%

68.22%

64.95%

50.93%

26.64%

14.02%

• 54.93%,morethan8years• 26.44%,morethan5years

• 82.71%Facebookviasmartphone


• 52.82% (n.99)arefansoftheirmunicipalityonFacebook

DidtheuseofFacebookMunicipalityPagechangethequalityofMunicipality

communication?

• Yes,itimprovesit– 52.94%• Yes,itgotworse– 2.94%

• Noinfluenceonquality– 33.33%• Idon’tknow– 10.78%

• (n.99)

Università di CagliariTobeornottobeMunicipalityfans?

a)ArecontentspostedintheFacebookPagetrustworthy?

• Yes,always– 25.24%• Yes,often– 41.75%• Yes,sometimes–30.1%• Never– 2.91% (n.99)

Findings#RQ1:TrustinMunicipalityandFacebookOfficialPagefans

Resultsshowasignificantdifference

• FacebookMunicipalityfans(n.99)Trust- mean:5.99

• NonFacebookMunicipalityfans(n.90)Trust- mean:4.99

p‹0,01– n.189


Findings#RQ2:PerceivedsignsofTrust


Findings#RQ3:signsoftrust• Wecollected93suggestionsfromItalianMunicipalityFacebookFans


VoicesforimprovingtrustonSM

n. 93

CONTENTS

TRANSPARENCY NOPOLITICALINTERFERENCE

TECHNICALASPECTS

INTERACTIVITY&

PARTICIPATION


Conclusions&furthersteps• FacebookMunicipalityPagesrespresentconnectiveenvironments,where

trustisnegotiatedbetweenmunicipalitiesandcitizens• Signsoftrustarerelatedto“Messagequality”,“Qualityofinteraction”,

“Trustedsources”.ThepresenceofTrustedsources(i.e.,linktoofficialwebsiteandnewsmedia)seemstohaveakeyroleincitizens’trustperceptiononsocialmedia

• Citizens’voiceshighlighttheperceivedlackofskillsinmanagingrelationshipswithcitizensinordertofostertrustonsocialmedia

Limitationsofstudy preliminaryphaseofthestudy– focusonlyonFacebook

Furtherstepsofresearch• Followupofthestudy - web-surveyinaselectedpanelofmunicipalities

- interviewswithPRpractitioners

• InvestigatetherelationshipsbetweenpoliticalcommunicationandpubliccommunicationonFacebookPages;offlineparticipationandsignsoftrust


04/07/18

Thank you foryour attention!

For any feedback J

[email protected] [email protected]@alelovari @ltzmtr


università di cagliari signs of trust. - bledcom.com 5b_lovari_materassi... · signs of trust....

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