Re-Connecting Voices. The (New) Strategic Role of Public Sector Communication After the Covid-19 Crisis


Abstract


This article aims to investigate the evolution of public sector communication before and after the Covid-19 crisis that has strongly impacted governmental institutions, public policy, contemporary society, and media ecologies. After a review of the main characteristics of public sector communication, the article proposes an interpretative and dynamic model to better understand the new challenges for public institutions. The model introduces ethics as the new, primary driver for public sector communication to surround all decisions, pointing out the need for transparent, authentic participation and dialogue to build trust. Focusing on two dimensions (trust/distrust, openness/closedness), the authors investigate the main trajectories of change for public sector communication, conceiving the three pillars of open government (transparency, participation and collaboration) as strategic values for improving the quality and efficacy of communication. In this time of uncertainty, the new trajectories of communication should fully embrace an ethical approach in order to become resilient, able to respond to citizens' needs and expectations, and to maintain responsible relationships with media, varied strategic publics, and a rapidly changing global community.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v13i2p970

Keywords: public sector communication; ethics; social media; public relations; Covid-19; open government; sociology of communication; transparency

References


Allington D., and D. Nayana (2020), The Relationship between Conspiracy Beliefs and Compliance with Public Health Guidance with Regard to Covid-19. (https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/127048253/Allington_and_Dhavan_2020.pdf).

Andersen D.F., and S.S. Dawes (1991), Government Information Management. A primer and Casebook, Englewood, NJ, USA: Prentice-Hall.

Anderson R. (2020), Power of Social Trust and the Pandemic, The Society Pages, 7 July, (https://thesocietypages.org/specials/power-of-social-trust-and-the-pandemic/).

Baines D., and R. J. Elliott (2020), Defining misinformation, disinformation and malinformation: An urgent need for clarity during the COVID-19 infodemic, Discussion Papers 20-06, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.

Baron M. (1995), Kantian ethics almost without apology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Bartoletti R., and F. Faccioli (2016), “Public Engagement, Local Policies and Citizens' Participation: An Italian Case Study of Civic Collaboration”, in Social Media + Society, July-September 2016: 1–11.

Belardinelli S., and G. Gili (2020), “Fidarsi. Cinque forme di fiducia alla prova del Covid-19”, Mediascapes journal, 15/2020, pp. 80-98.

Bennett W. L., and A. Segerberg (2012), “The logic of connective action”, in Information, Communication & Society, 15:5, pp. 739-768.

Bertot J. C., P. T. Jaeger, and D. Hansen (2012), “The impact of policies on government social media usage: Issues, challenges, and recommendations”, Government Information Quarterly 29(1), 30-40.

Bessières D. (2018), “L’hybridité: une composante ancienne mais aujourd’hui démultipliée de la communication publique”, Recherches en Communication, 47, pp. 5-21.

Boccia Artieri G., and A. Marinelli (2018), “Introduzione: piattaforme, algoritmi, formati. Come sta evolvendo l'informazione online”, in Problemi dell'informazione, Rivista quadrimestrale 3/2018, pp. 349-368, doi: 10.1445/91657.

Bowen S. A. (2004a), “Expansion of ethics as the tenth generic principle of public relations excellence: A Kantian theory and model for managing ethical issues”, Journal of Public Relations Research, 16(1), 65-92.

Bowen S. A. (2004b), “Organizational factors encouraging ethical decision making: An exploration into the case of an exemplar”, Journal of Business Ethics, 52(4), 311-324.

Bowen S. A. (2005), “A practical model for ethical decision making in issues management and public relations”, Journal of Public Relations Research, 17(3), 191-216.

Bowen S. A. (2010), The nature of good in public relations: What should be its normative ethic?, in R. L. Heath (Ed.), Handbook of public relations (pp. 569-583). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Bowen S. A. (2013), “Using classic social media cases to distill ethical

guidelines for digital engagement”, in Journal of Mass Media Ethics: Exploring Questions of Media Morality, 28(2): 119-133.

Bowen S. A., and R. L. Heath (2005), “Issues management, systems, and rhetoric: Exploring the distinction between ethical and legal guidelines at Enron”, Journal of Public Affairs, 5, 84-98.

Bowen S. A., C. J. Hung-Baesecke, and Y. R. Chen (2016), “Ethics as a pre-cursor to organization-public relationships: Building trust before and during the OPR model”, Cogent Social Sciences, 29(1). (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2016.1141467).

Boyd D., and N. Ellison (2007), “Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship”, in Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 13, pp. 210-230.

Brennen J. S., F. M. Simon, P. N. Howard, and R. K. Nielsen (2020), Types, sources, and claims of Covid-19 misinformation. Reuters Institute. (https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/types-sources-and-claims-Covid-19-misinformation).

Capano G., and E. Pavan (2018), “Designing anticipatory policies through the use of ICTs”, in Policy and Society, pp. 1-23.

Canel M. (2007), Comunicación de las Instituciones Públicas. Madrid: Tecnos.

Canel M. (2012), Government communication: an emerging field in Political Communication research. In H. Semetko, and M. Scammell (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Political Communication, pp. 85–96, London: Sage.

Canel M., and V. Luoma-aho (2019), Public sector communication. Closing gaps between citizens and public organizations. Hooboken, US: Wiley and Sons.

Carelli P., and N. Vittadini (2020), Social-virus. Piattaforme, istituzioni e hashtag durante la pandemia, in M. Sala, and M. Scaglioni (a cura di). L’altro virus. Comunicazione e disinformazione al tempo del Covid-19, (pp.31-52), Milano: Vita e Pensiero.

Cathcart (1981), Post-communication: rhetorical analysis and evaluation, Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, US.

Cheung A.B.L. (1996), “Efficiency as the Rhetoric: Public-sector Reform in Hong Kong Explained”, International Review of Administrative Sciences, 62(1): 31-47.

Christensen T., and P. Laegreid (2011), “Democracy and administrative policy: Contrasting elements of new public management (NPM) and post-NPM”, European Political Science Review, 3(1), 125-146, (https://doi.org/10.1017/s1755773910000299).

Christensen L. T., and R. Langer (2009). Public Relations and the Strategic Use of Transparency: Consistency, Hypocrisy and Corporate

Change, in R. L. Heath, E. L. Toth, & D. Waymer (Eds.), Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations (2 ed., pp. 129-153). Spon press. Routledge Communication Series.

Coleman S., and P. M. Shane (2011), Connecting democracy. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Contini F., and G. F. Lanzara (2009), ICT and Innovation in the Public Sector. London, UK: Palgrave.

Cordella A., and C. M. Bonina (2012), “A public value perspective for ICT enabled public sector reforms: A theoretical reflection”. Government Information Quarterly 29, 4: 512–520. DOI:10.1016/j.giq.2012.03.004.

Coye R. W. (2004). “Managing customer expectations in the service encounter”, International Journal of Service Management, 15(1), 54-71.

Council of Europe (2018), Transparency and open government. Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Department (SPDP), Council of Europe.

D’Ambrosi L. (2019), “L’identità europea nel nuovo millennio: strategie comunicative e processi partecipativi”, in Problemi dell’Informazione, vol. 1, pp. 199–214.

D'Ambrosi L., and L. Massoli (2012), “Bridging and bonding connections beyond the web: youth movements and civic engagement”, International Review of Sociology, 22:3, 530-551, DOI: 10.1080/03906701.2012.730841.

Dahlgren P. (2009), Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication, and Democracy, New York: Cambridge University Press.

De Blasio E., and M. Sorice (2016), Innovazione democratica: un’introduzione. Roma: Luiss University Press.

Delli Carpini M. X. (2020), “Public sector communication and democracy”, in Luoma-Aho V., and Canel M. J. (eds.), Handbook of Public Sector Communication, (31-44), Hoboken, US: Wiley-Blackwell.

Donovan J. (2020), “Social-media companies must flatten the curve of misinformation”, Nature, 14 April 2020. doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01107-z.

Ducci G. (2015), ”Public communication in the Processes of Transparency and Accountability in the Era of Open Data”, in Sociology Study, Vol. 5, n. 2, February, David Publishing Company, EL Monte CA, USA, pp. 83-90.

Ducci G., L. D’Ambrosi, and A. Lovari (2019), "Fra schermi e schermaglie: le sfide del visual nello storytelling istituzionale”, H-ermes, Journal of Communication. 15 (2019), 313-352.

Edelman (2018), Trust Barometer, (https://www.edelman.com/trust2018/).

Edelman (2020), Trust and the Coronavirus. Retrieved from https://www.edelman.com.

EEAS (2020), Covid-19 disinformation. EEAS. Retrieved from https://euvsdisinfo.eu.

Ermisch J., and D. Gambetta (2016), “Income and Trustworthiness”, Sociological Science, 3, pp. 710-729.

European Commission (2020), Joint Communication to the European Parliament, The European Council, The Council, The European economic and social committee and the committee of the Regions, JOIN(2020) 8 final.

Faccioli F. (2000), Comunicazione pubblica e cultura del servizio, Roma: Carocci.

Firmstone J., and S. Coleman (2015), “Public engagement in local government: the voice and influence of citizens in online communicative spaces”, Information, Communication & Society, 18:6, 680-695, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2014.986180.

Garnett J. L. (1997), “Administrative communication: domain, threats, and legitimacy”, in Handbook of Administrative Communication, (eds. Garnett J.L., and A. Kouzmin), 3-20, New York: Marcel Dekker.

Gelders D., G. Bouckaert, and B. van Ruler (2007), “Communication management in the public sector: consequences for public communication about policy intentions”, Government Information Quarterly, 24(2), 326–337.

Giddens A. (1990), The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Goldsmith S., and S. Crawford (2014), The responsive city. Engaging communities through data-smart governance, San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Graber D. (1992), Public sector communication. How organizations manage information, Congressional Quarterly Inc., Washington, D.C.

Graber D. (2003), The power of Communication. Managing Information in Public Organizations, CQPress, Washington D.C.

Grunig J. E. (1992), (Ed.) Excellence in public relations and communication management. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Grunig J. E. (2000), “Collectivism, collaboration, and societal corporatism as core professional values in public relations”, in Journal of Public Relations Research, 12(1), pp. 23–48.

Grunig J. E. (2006), Furnishing the edifice: Ongoing research on public relations as a strategic management function. In J. E. Ledingham and S. Brunig, Public relations as relationship management, pp. 151-176. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Grunig J. E. (2009), “Paradigms of global public relations in an age of digitalisation”, Prism, 6(2). (http://praxis.massey.ac.nz/prism_on-line_journ.html).

Grunig J.E., M.A. Ferrari, and F. França (2009), Relações públicas: Teoria, contexto e relacionamentos (Public relations: Theory, context, and relationships), São Paulo, Brazil: Difusao Editora.

Han B. C. (2015), The Transparency Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Harris P., and C. S. Fleisher (eds. 2017), The Sage Handbook of International Corporate and Public Affairs, Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Haro-de-Rosario A., A. Sáez-Martin, and M. Caba-Pérez (2018), “Using social media to enhance citizens engagement with local government: Twitter or Facebook?”, in New Media & Society 20, 1, pp. 29-49.

Hood C. (1991), “A public management for all seasons”, Public Administration, 69(1), 3-19.

Hood C. (2006), “Transparency in Historical Perspective”, in Hood, C. and Heald, D. (eds.), Transparency. The Key to Better Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-23.

Hood C., and M. Lodge (2006), The Politics of Public Service Bargains, Oxford: Oxford Scholarship Online.

Islam R. (2003), Do More Transparent Governments Govern Better?, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3077, (https://ssrn.com/abstract=636439).

Kant I. (1785/1964), Groundwork of the metaphysic of morals. New York: Harper & Row. Trans.: H.J. Paton. (Original work published 1785).

Kass H. D., and B. L. Catron (1990), Images and identities in public administration, Newbury Park, USA: Sage Publications.

Kent M. (2013), “Using social media dialogically: Public relations in the reviving democracy”, in Public Relations Review, 4, pp. 337-345.

Kent M. L., and M. Taylor (2002), “Toward a dialogic theory of public relations”, Public Relations Review, 28(1), 21-37.

Lathrop D., and L. Ruma (2010), Open Government. Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

Lee M. P. (2007), Government Public Relations: a Reader. Washington, DC: CRC Press.

Lippmann W. (1922), Public Opinion. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Linders D. (2012), “From e-government to we-government: Defining a typology for citizen coproduction in the age of social media”, Government Information Quarterly, 29(4), 446-454.

Lyon D. (2018), The culture of surveillance, UK: Polity Press.

Lovari A. (2020a), “Spreading (dis)trust: Covid-19 misinformation and government intervention in Italy”, Media and Communication, 8(2), 458-461.

Lovari A. (2020b), Comunicare le amministrazioni nelle contemporanee ecologie mediali. Traiettorie di ricerca, pratiche digitali e retoriche dell’innovazione tecnologica” in Addis M.C., and Prato, A. (a cura di), Il sistema dei media. Le forme della persuasione, Pisa: Ets Editore, pp. 29-43.

Lovari A., and S. A. Bowen (2019), “Social media in disaster communication: A case study of strategies, barriers, and ethical implications”, Journal of Public Affairs, pp. 1-9. (https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1967).

Lovari A., S. Kim, K. Vibber, and J. N. Kim (2011), “Digitisation impact on publics: Public knowledge and civic conversation”, PRism, 8, N.2: pp. 1-20.

Lovari A., and L. Parisi (2015), “Listening to digital publics. Investigating citizens' voices and engagement within Italian municipalities’ Facebook pages”, Public Relations Review, 41(2), 205-213.

Lovari A., and C. Valentini (2020), Public sector communication and social media: Opportunities and limits of current policies, activities, and practices, in Luoma-Aho V., and Canel M. J. (eds.), Handbook of Public Sector Communication, NY: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 315-328.

Luoma-Aho V., and M. J. Canel (eds.), Handbook of Public Sector Communication, Hoboken US: Wiley-Blackwell.

McCamy J. L. (1939), “Public relations in Public Administration”, in Current Issues in Library Administration (ed. C.B. Joeckel), 31-39. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.

Macnamara J. (2016), Organizational Listening. The missing essential in public communication, New York, US: Peter Lang.

Macnamara J. (2018), Public Relations and Post-Communication. Addressing a paradox in public communication, Public Relations Journal, 11(3), pp: 1-20.

Massoli L., and L. D’Ambrosi (2014), “Environmental Movements, Institutions and Civil Society: A New Way to Preserve Common Goods”, in Partecipazione e Conflitto, n. 7, Lecce: University Publishing Home, pp. 657–681.

Mergel I. (2013), “A framework for interpreting social media interactions in the public sector”, Government Information Quarterly, 30, pp. 27-34.

Mergel I. (2015), “Social media institutionalization in the U.S. federal government”, Government Information Quarterly, 33, 1, pp. 142-148.

Mergel I., and I. Bretschneider (2013), “A Three-Stage Adoption Process for Social Media Use in Government”, Public Administration Review, 73, 390-400.

Mulgan R. (2000), “Accountability: an ever-expanding concept”, Public Administration, 78 (3): 555-573.

Nielsen R. K., R. Fletcher, N. Newman, S. Brennen, and P. N. Howard (2020), Navigating the ‘infodemic’: how people in six countries access and rate news and information about Coronavirus. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Offe C. (1999), “How can we trust our fellow citizens?”, in M.A. Warren (ed.), Democracy and Trust, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 42-87.

Osborne D., and Gaebler T. (1992), Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming the Public Sector. Addison-Wesley, Reading.

O’Neill O. (2019), Trust and Accountability in a Digital Age in Philosophy, Volume 95, Issue 1,January 2020, pp. 3-17.

Pew Research Center (2020), Trust in medical scientists has grown in U.S. but mainly among Democrats, April 20-26, 2020.

(https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/05/21/trust-in-medical-scientists-has-grown-in-u-s-but-mainly-among-democrats/).

Putnam R. D. (2000), Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York: Simon & Schuster.

Rogers E. M. (1962), Diffusion of innovations (1st ed.). New York: Free Press of Glencoe.

Rosanvallon P., and A. Goldhammer (2008), Counter-Democracy: Politics in an Age of Distrust, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Salaverría R., N. Buslón, F. López-Pan, B. León, I. López-Goñi, and M. C. Erviti (2020), “Desinformación en tiempos de pandemia: tipología de los bulos sobre la Covid-19”, El profesional de la información, v. 29, n. 3, e290315. (https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.may.15).

Sanders K., and M. J. Canel (2013), Government Communication Cases and Challenges. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Schulz W. (2004), “Reconstructing Mediatization as an Analytical Concept”, European Journal of Communication, 19(1): 87-101.

Solito L. (2017), “Towards new scenarios of public communication. Considerations on the Italian case”, ADCOMUNICA, vol. 13, pp. 159-174.

Solito L., S. Pezzoli, and L. Materassi (2019), “Prove di maturità. Social media e bisogni informativi della cittadinanza”, Problemi dell’informazione, 2:339-363.

Solito L., and C. Sorrentino (2018), “Political Communication and Social Change. Political Communication and Challenges in the Digital Age”, La Revista ICONO 14, vol. 16, pp. 22-41.

Sorrentino C. (2008), La società densa. Riflessioni intorno alle nuove forme di sfera pubblica, Firenze: Le Lettere.

Stewart K., M. Lee, and G. Neeley (2012), (eds.), The practice of government public relations, London: Taylor & Francis.

Tasnim S., M. M., Hossain, and M. Hoimonty (2020), “Impact of Rumors and Misinformation on COVID-19 in Social Media”, J Prev Med Public Health. 2020 May; 53(3): 171–174.

Taylor M., and M. L. Kent (2014), “Dialogic Engagement: Clarifying Foundational Concepts”, Journal of Public Relations Research, 26:5, 384-398, DOI: 10.1080/1062726X.2014.956106.

Thompson J. B. (1995), The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Valentini C. (2015), “Is using social media “good” for the public relations profession? A critical reflection”, Public Relations Review, 41(2), 170-177.

Thijs N., and P. Staes (2008), European Primer on Customer Satisfaction Management. Brussels: EUPAN/EIPA.

van den Bosch F. A. J, and C.B.M. van Riel (1998), “Buffering and bridging as environmental strategies of firms”, Business Strategy and the Environment, 7, 24–31.

Van Dijck J., and T. Poell (2013), “Understanding social media logic”, Media and communication, 1(1), 2-14. (http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/mac.v1i1.70).

Warren A. M., A. Sulaiman, and N. I. Jafaar (2014), “Social media effects on fostering online civic engagement and building citizen trust and trust in institutions”, Government Information Quarterly, Vol. 31, pp. 291-301.

West D.M. (2005), Digital Government. Technology and Public Sector Performance, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Zavattaro S. M., and A. J. Sementelli (2014), “A critical examination of social media adoption in government: Introducing omnipresence”, in Government Information Quarterly, 31, pp. 257-264.

Zemor P. (2008), La communication publique. Coll. Que sais-je? Paris: PUF.

Zerfass A., D. Verčič, P. Verhoeven, Á. Moreno, and R. Tench (2019), European Communication Monitor 2019, Berlin: QuadrigaMedia.

Zheng L., and T. Zheng (2014), “Innovation through social media in the public sector: Information and interactions”, Government Information Quarterly, 31:106-17.

Papers published in this Special Issue

Bartoletti R. and F. Faccioli (2020), “Civic Collaboration and Urban Commons. Citizen’s Voices on a Public Engagement Experience in an Italian City”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1132-1151.

Bowen S.A. and R.L. Health (2020), “Intelligences in Strategic Issues Management: Challenging the Mutually Beneficial Relationships Paradigm”, Partipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1002-1021.

Chock T.M. and S. Jung Kim (2020), “U.S Audiences’ Perceptions of Covid-19 and Conservative News Frames”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1180-1189.

Chon M-G., H. Lee, and J-N Kim (2020), “Values of Government Public Relations for a Rocky Road to Participatory Democracy: Testing Public Engagement, Empowerment, and Serenity Hypotheses in Public Sector Communication”, Parecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1110-1131.

Coombs W.T. (2020), “Public Sector Crises: Realizations from Covid-19 for Crisis Communication”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 990-1001.

De Blasio E., C. Colasanti, and D. Selva (2020), “Public Communication and the Barriers to Participation: The Case of Rome from an Open Government Perspective”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1152-1167.

Ducci G., L. Materassi, and L. Solito (2020), “Re-Connecting Scholars’ Voices: An historical Review of Public Communication in Italy and New Challenges in the Open Government Framework”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1062-1084.

Greenwood C.A. (2020), “‘I Was Just Doing My Job!’ Evolution, Corruption, and Public Relations in Interviews with Government Whistleblowers”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1042-1061.

Leone S. and M. Della Mura (2020), “Institutional Flows of Communication for Young People on Istagram and the Use of Visual Images”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1085-1109.

Lukacovic M.N. (2020), “Framing Events of Political Violence within Peace Journalism and Internet User-Generated Comments: Effects on Readers’ Emotions and Contemplation of Broader Implications”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1022-1041.

Marinelli A. and S. Parisi (2020), “(Smart) City and the (Open) Data. A Critical Approach to a Platform-driven Urban Citizenship”, Partecipazione e conflitto, 13(2): 1168-1179.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.