U.S. State Education Agencies’ Use of Twitter

Abstract

This study examined how Twitter was used by all U.S. state education agencies (SEAs) for public engagement in education. Drawing on the ecological model of communication, this study analyzed the latest 71,913 tweets from 40 SEAs that had official Twitter accounts. The results of correlation analysis indicate no significant relationship between the SEAs’ presence on Twitter and the SEAs’ targeted Twitter users, denoting that the SEAs’ well-intentioned efforts in communicating with stakeholders and the public by using Twitter might fall short of the public’s preferable medium for receiving information. In addition, the results of content analysis suggest that the SEAs primarily used Twitter for one-way asymmetrical information broadcasting, leaving Twitter’s two-way symmetrical communication functionality largely untapped. Findings are discussed with respect to the implications for educational organizations’ effective use of Twitter through the public’s increased participation and collaboration.