The Nature of Government Tweets for Conveying a Message to the Public

摘要

Governments wish to keep certain types of informationrnconcealed from the public due to a variety of differentrnreasons. Government agencies that protect secrecy oftenrnhave a difficult time connecting to the public (WGPC,rn2014). Secretive, or perceived secretive governmentrnorganizations often fall into the nebulous realm ofrnuncertainty for the information consumer. This results in arngreat deal of misinformation and disinformation beingrnthought of as correct (Hernon, 1995). These types of wrongrninformation are ubiquitous on the internet and even more sornon social media, where rumors are often passed as truth.rnSince 2008, the US government is moving toward a morerntransparent, open, and easily accessed information basernthrough social media (Lathrop & Ruma, 2010). Agenciesrnacross the government are adopting types of social mediarncommunication. However, bureaus that primarily focus onrnsecurity and safeguarding secrets struggle with how muchrnto share and which platforms of social media are the ‘best’rnfor their message, and how to inure trust from theirrnaudience. This study is a content analysis of parent tweetsrnfrom government agencies of the Central IntelligencernAgency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department ofrnHomeland Security, International Atomic Energy Agency,rnand National Security Agency (CIA, FBI, DHS, IAEA, andrnNSA) and the responses of the tweets from the public tornassess the tone of message and response.