City Use of SOCIAL MEDIA: Legal & Other Considerations

摘要

Nearly 75 percent of Americans now use social media. According to the Pew Research Center, as of August 2018, two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans reported that they get at least some of their news on social media including, for the first time, more than half (55 percent) of those age 50 or older. Americans are also now more likely than ever to get news from multiple social media sites, with approximately one quarter of all U.S. adults (26 percent) getting news from two or more social media sites. This is in contrast to a drop in daily newspaper circulation (down 11 percent) and viewership of cable evening news (down 12 percent), network morning news (down 10 percent) and local morning news (down 15 percent).These statistics illustrate some of the reasons that cities statewide are increasingly experimenting with and expanding their use of social media. In addition to the pervasiveness of social media use among Americans, online platforms like social media offer cities a number of community engagement and transparency benefits.