Quantitative Content Analysis of Communication Patterns on Facebook: A Case Study of the Croatian Government

Authors

  • Mato Brautović University of Dubrovnik, Department of Mass Communication
  • Romana John PhD student at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Iva Milanović-Litre PhD student at the University of Osijek, Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Doctoral Study of Communication Science

Keywords:

social media, Facebook, civic engagement, e-government, communication patterns

Abstract

In the process of involving citizens more deeply in the democratic process, Facebook is becoming an increasingly important tool for governments in policy making. Facebook has the potential to increase political participation, but many governments fail to use it in the right way, because they just share information online and do not engage with their followers/citizens. This paper shows how the Croatian government is using Facebook and the communication patterns resulting from their work. The quantitative analysis of 20,546 posts and 52,311 comments show that communication is one way, rather than interactive. Government users do not follow the 90-9-1- rule of thumb for social networks.

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Published

2017-12-19

Issue

Section

Articles