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Government Communication on the Social Web
An Experimental Study Exploring the Use ofInteractive and Participative Elements
Daniel Heine, M. A.
General Online Research 2010 Pforzheim
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Introduction
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Research Question
_ Is the Social Web more effective than other, “established” communication tools?
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Experimental Research Setting
Object
_ Examining a causal link between the use of a communication tool as an instrument of government communication and the achieved effects
Basic idea
_ Simulating the communication process occurring in the context of policy implementation using different communication tools under constant circumstances
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Independent Variable: Social Web Use
Social Web
_ Interactive and participative elements in online communication settings (Welker & Zerfaß 2008 p. 12)
Four levels of Social Web use
1. Neither participative nor interactive: no Social Web (control group)
2. participative and interactive: Simple Social Web
a. based on text: Simple Social Web/Comment (experiment group I)
b. based on video: Simple Social Web/Video (experiment group II)
3. participative and interactive based on both text and video allowing to recount relatedness of earlier messages : Complex Social Web (experiment group III)
„Lurking“ as dominant using practice
_ Only six percent off all onliners are writing blogs, adding comments or videos (Busemann & Gscheidle 2009: 357)
_ Analyzes of passive use (reception) of Social Web
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Dependent Variable: Communication Effect
Initiation of communication processes
Measu-rement range
Results ofcommunication processes
Output
Outcome
Internal Output
Process efficiencyQuality
Budget complianceFailure rate
ReadabilitySatisfaction of internal clients
…
External Output
CoverageContent
ClippingsVisits
DownloadsImpact ratio
Share of voice
…
Direct
Outcome
PerceptionUtilization
Knowlegde
AwarenessUnique visitorsSession length
Reader per issue
RecallRecognition
…
Indirect
Outcome
OpinionAttitudeEmotion
Behavioral dispositionBehavior
Reputation indexBrand image
Strategic awareness of employees
Purchase intentionLeads
Innovative ideas…
Ressources
Employee assignmentFinancial Expenses
Personnel costsOutsourcing costs
…
Input
Value creation
Impact on strategic and/or financial targets (Value chain)
Impact on tangible and/or intangible
resources(Capital
accumulation)
SalesNo. of project
agreementsCost reduction
Reputation capitalBrand valueEmployeeknowledge
…
Outflow
ORGANIZATION
Communication processes
MEDIA/CHANNELS STAKEHOLDERS ORGANIZATION
low impact on value creationstrong influence of communication management
Level of impact
Indica-tors(e.g.)
Mea-sured object
high impact on value creationweak influence of communication management
© DPRG German Public Relations Association & ICV International Controller Association 2009
DPRG/ICV framework for communication controlling
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Treatment: Fake Law
“Konsumkostenentlastungsprogramm” – “Consumption Discharge Act”
_ Saxon federal state law
_ Refund of VAT payments for private spendings in shops in Saxony in July 2009
_ Application as condition sine qua non
_ Other regulations, descriptions, etc. according to real wording
_ Sophisticated internal construction – understanding all the regulations is not trivial
_ Issue and political intent refer to the surrounding situation of economic crisis (e.g. in Germany Abwrackprämie, Wachstumsbeschleunigungsgesetz)
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Treatment: Fake Government Website
Control Group
_ No Social Web
_ Neither opportunities to participate nor to interact (no relations between messages because there is only one sender: the government)
_ Represents „traditional“ tools of online (government) communication
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Treatment: Fake Government Website
Experiment Group I
_ Simple Social Web/Comment
_ Opportunity to participate in communication sequences by adding a comment
_ No differentiation between sender and recipient
_ Relations between messages from different senders
_ Represents the communication style ofweblogs
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Treatment: Fake Government Website
Experiment Group II
_ Simple Social Web/Video
_ Opportunity to participate in communication sequences by adding a video comment
_ No differentiation between sender and recipient
_ Relations between messages from different senders
_ Representing the communication style ofvideo blogs
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Treatment: Fake Government Website
Experiment Group III
_ Complex Social Web
_ Opportunity to participate in communication sequences by addingboth videos and text comments
_ Relations between messages taking into account the relatedness of earlier messages
_ Represents the communication practiced at Social Web Platforms like Youtube
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Research Participants and Sampling Procedure
Sampling procedure
_ Particular choice of typical cases: Persons with different use of Social Web and political interest
_ Setting up „statistical twins“
_ Random matching to one version of the website
Location an time
_ Check-in-area of Leipzig/Halle Airport
_ 23., 24. June 2009
Measurement methods
_ Survey (questionnaire)
_ Observation (did anyone take an application form?)
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Analysis
Steps
_ Calculation of indices for every measurement range
_ Aggregation of the separate indices to one index describing the global communication effect (PICO)
_ Bi- and multivariate analysis on different levels of data aggregation considering other independent/intervening variables:
_ Analysis of variances
_ Rank correlation
Limitations
_ Statistical analysis yielded no significant effect
_ Probably because of the low number of participants (Diekmann 2009 p. 714).
Interpretation is limited
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Socio Demographic Structure
_ All in all 68 research participants
_ According to this 17 research participants each experiment group
_ 59,7 % male, 40,3 % female
_ Average age: 38 years
_ Different professions, use of internet and Social Web, political interest
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Social Web Improves Communication Effects
_ Lowest communication effect in control group (no Social Web use)
_ Complex Social Web (comments and videos) shows best effects in affective measurement ranges where it even beats forms of moderate Social Web use (in contrast to the global level)
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Influence of Intervening Variables
Use of Social Web
_ Declining communication effect caused by Social Web use when there is a lack of routine in handling Social Web applications and platforms
Political interest
_ Communication effect improvement is higher with research participants with less political interest
Involvement
_ Communication effect improvement is higher with research participants with high involvement
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Discussion
Social Web has the potential to be more than a “bypass”
_ Empirical reasons to suppose that Social Web use as an instrument of government communication has positive influence on the communication effects
_ Using relatively simple patterns of participation and interaction is usually the most suitable way to communicate political decisions
_ Complex forms of Social Web should be used when the focus lies on persuasion (changing emotions, opinions, attitudes, behavior)
All these effects do not conform to any automatism
_ Practice in using Social Web leads to greater increase of the communication effect caused by Social Web use
_ Less political interest leads to greater increase of the communication effect caused by Social Web use
_ Higher involvement of a person in a policy leads to greater increase of the communication effect caused by Social Web use
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Thank You For Your Attention
Daniel Heine, M. A.
Public Relations Executive/Online CommunicationsCity of Dresden – Economic Development Office
www.danielheine.de
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References
_ Bieber, C. (2006). Zwischen Grundversorgung und Bypass-Operation. Von der Idee zur Praxis digitaler Regierungskommunikation. In Kamps, K. & Nieland, J.-U. (Eds.): Regieren und Kommunikation. Meinungsbildung, Entscheidungsfindung und gouvernementales Kommunikationsmanagement – Trends, Vergleiche, Perspektiven (pp. 239-260).
_ Blum, S. & Schubert, K. (2009): Politikfeldanalyse.
_ Busemann, K./Gscheidle, C. (2009). Web 2.0: Communitys bei jungen Nutzern beliebt. Ergebnisse der ARD/ZDF-Onlinestudie 2009. In Media Perspektiven, No. 7, S. 356–364. URL: http://www.media-perspektiven.de/uploads/tx_mppublications/Busemann_7_09.pdf, last access 12.09.2009.
_ Castells, M. (2006). The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy. In Castells, M. (Ed.): The network society. From knowledge to policy (pp. 3–21).
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References
_ Diekmann, A. (2009). Empirische Sozialforschung. Grundlagen, Methoden, Anwendungen.
_ Krotz, F. (2007). Mediatisierung. Fallstudien zum Wandel von Kommunikation.
_ Rafaeli, S. & Sudweeks, F. (1997). Networked Interactivity. In Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Vol 2, No. 4, URL: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/120837708/HTMLSTARTW, last acsess 12.09.2009.
_ Welker, M. & Zerfaß, A. (2008). Einleitung: Social Web in Journalismus, Politik und Wirtschaft. In Zerfaß, A., Welker, M. & Schmidt, J. (Eds.). Kommunikation, Partizipation und Wirkungen im Social Web. Strategien und Anwendungen. Perspektiven für Wirtschaft, Politik und Publizistik. Volume 2 (pp. 12-18).