Understanding Processes of Structuration on Social Media as a Basis for Government Strategy for Public Communication.

On social media, people (in)directly discuss issues that are related to the government. At the same time governments have difficulties taking a meaningful role in these discussions due to issues of e.g. privacy and (in)equality. This paper aims to obtain insight into the way government can deal with this dilemma. In order to do so, a Dutch Twitter case through qualitative, quantitative and network analysis to obtain insight into the interactions that take place on social media as well as the sources of structure and outcomes related to these interactions. The paper uses (Adaptive) Structuration Theory is used as a theoretical basis. Cognitive dissonance, Framing and Social Capital provide the theoretical lenses to understand the online interactions. Results show that interactions take place in subgroups that discuss the issue from different angles. Based on these insights, we develop a strategy that helps governments to connect to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]