Social bureaucracy? The integration of social media into government communication

Abstract

Inspired by an institutional logics approach, this article analyzes the barriers to and drivers of the integration of social media in the communication practices in Norwegian ministries. Drawing on rich ethnographic data, the paper analyzes the process of integrating social media logic into government communication units that were largely organized through a news media regime. To understand the process, it emphasizes four dimensions: how the symbolic resources, material resources, formal rules and practices have defined the logics of government communication in the period studied (May 2015-May 2016). The analysis meets the call for more empirical investigation into the interplay between the traditional news logics and new digital logics.