A review and meta-analysis of the appropriate research literature spanning 2010 to 2020, shows that social media has played a significant role in shaping government policies. The work is published in the publication Electronic Government, an International Journal.
Social media refers to websites and applications, mobile apps, that allow users to create, share, and exchange information and content with others in virtual communities and networks. The concept is often referred to as Web 2.0 to contrast it with Web 1.0, which largely involved the traditional model of users passively consuming the output from websites in much the same way as they had for generations of consumers of newspapers, magazines, radio and television broadcasts. Social media gained traction in the early 2000s, with platforms such as Myspace and Friendster, which quickly gathered users and demonstrated some of the potential of this new online realm.
It was not until the launch of Facebook in 2004 that social media began to revolutionize the way people communicate and connect online. Of the services that emerged at the time and soon after, several are still active and represent a large proportion of online activity for many people. These various services are often at the centre of controversial activity. During the period of 2010-2020, social media became even more pervasive and diverse, with platforms including Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat becoming so popular that they displaced conventional news and entertainment sources for many people.
Social media is used in a wide range of sectors, including politics, business, education, news, and entertainment. Politicians have frequently exploited social media to help them fulfill their agenda and aspirations. Businesses find new ways to engage with putative customers but occasionally also see the negative impact of going viral when their activities are controversial. The same happens for celebrities and others. In education, social media has been used as a tool for online learning and communication between students and teachers and was a boon during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, some aspects of social media use still retain their utility. In entertainment, social media has become a world of so-called influencers, a new breed of celebrity whose talents may not lie in the traditional fields of art, music, or acting, but nevertheless allow them to gather an audience around them, build a personal brand to whatever end they can imagine.
Now, Achmad Nurmandi, Herpita Wahyuni, Salahudin, and Isnaini Muallidin of the Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta in Indonesia, and Maria Dolores Guillamon of the University of Murcia in Spain used a method known as meta-modelling to process several hundred documents from the literature published in that decade-long period. They hoped to determine what researchers had found during the period regarding the influence of social media on public policymaking and governance through data acquisition, opinion tracking, fast data processing, and public opinion analysis and measurement. Critically, the work looked at the impact on scientific developments in social media and government policies.
The team writes that “The use of social media in various policymaking processes has had a significant effect.” They add that “Open access can make public spaces understandable and help achieve common goals.” They conclude that “Future research should examine approaches to making reliable policies and promoting transparency through social media.”
Nurmandi, A., Wahyuni, H., Guillamon, M.D., Salahudin and Muallidin, I. (2023) ‘Social media use for public policymaking cycle: a meta-analysis’, Electronic Government, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.123–145.