A study on new channel development and trust in government: Usage of social media and smart devices in public sector

Abstract

Technology development results in more channels and greater media availability. Governments have continuously implemented various advanced channels to enhance the quality of communication with citizens and public services. Citizens also require improved service provision and the development of channels that are easy to use. Public services must be provided to the entire population impartially, regardless of gender, race, education, income and so on. Therefore, unlike the private sector, governmental agencies need to provide various contact channels for citizens. However, due to limited budgets and resources, many governmental organizations struggle with the management of their multiple service channels. To successfully implement a new service channel, we need to know how to develop and deliver services/information while maximizing the power and potential of the new channel; at the same time, it is necessary to ensure that citizens’ needs for public services are met and to evaluate whether the channel meets the expected goals. Unfortunately, many governments have borrowed the service channel usage and evaluation framework that is used in the private sector or have evaluated channel performance from a cost-benefit perspective or on the basis of technical and operational metrics. Since it does not reflect the characteristics of government, the framework currently used for the introduction and utilization of channels in the public sector lacks the capability to support and evaluate `governance` as a whole. As trust in government play a key role in the citizen-government relationship, we can use trust in government as a proxy for good governance. Therefore, this study suggests a reasonable government-wide approach to the successful adoption and use of a new channel from the perspective of enhancing trust in government. In particular, we attempt to prove whether social media and smart devices, the state-of-the-art digital channels with very high penetration and very...