Social media use for public policymaking cycle: a meta-analysis

Abstract

This study aims to determine the role of social media in policymaking by reviewing journals from 2010 to 2020. This study is a meta-model for the role of social media in policymaking. The method combines the method with data from various data sources, including published documents. Vosviewer and Words were used to examine patterns of relationships or clusters in analysed journals. The data obtained from Scopus helps discuss findings and draw conclusions. The results of the study indicate that social media has a significant influence on public policymaking and governance through: 1) data acquisition and pre-processing; 2) the opinion tracking component addresses hot topics as well as the selection and tracking of sensitive issues; 3) the distributed processing component performs fast processing of data access; 4) public opinion analysis component; 5) public opinion measurement component. This study only compares the results of an analysis of scientific developments in social media and government policies. Future research should examine approaches to making reliable policies and promoting transparency through social media. This study encourages the use of social media as an alternative approach in the policy cycle.