Social Media and Policy Making How Can Social Media Intervene in Policymaking?

Abstract

The emergence of participatory social media has created a new ecosystem for the participation of users in social events (Fuchs, 2021).Content exchange by the user generates values such as a social discourse and awareness of a special subject triggering political, social, and other types of changes (Edom, Hwang & Kim, 2018).With tens of millions of active users, social media have turned into dynamic resources of people’s interests, needs, and beliefs, giving rise to a rich content reserve.This provides policymakers with a great opportunity to learn about citizens and communicate with them effectively (Simonofski & Burnay, 2021).Social media serve as a link between users and policymakers, serving as a novel source to involve users in formulating and enacting policies (Driss, Mellouli & Trabelsi, 2019).Policymakers need to know the users’ opinions because users post their opinions on social media with minimal supervision (Dekker, van Den Brink & Meijer, 2019).Users express their positive and negative opinions on various issues on social platforms, providing policymakers with a unique opportunity to improve communication with citizens and learn about their needs and opinions (De Paula, Dincelli & Harrison, 2018).