Evaluation of the implementation of social media of Hong Kong Government

Abstract

E-engagement in public policies can be defined as citizens’ connection with and

participation in making public policies. The primary goal of connecting citizens during

making public policies is to improve efficiency of the governance of government and the

acceptance of public policies. To enhance public engagement in making public policies,

the Hong Kong Government is trying out to take soundings from the community and to

gauge public views on the government and public policies through social media platform,

such as Facebook, twitters, blogs and so on.

To evaluate the implementation of social media of the Hong Kong Government,

including how the social media encourages public engagement in public policies, how

and why the government employs the views collected from social media platforms in

making public policies, framework of Public Involvement Spectrum in Local Governance

put forward by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), its adapted

form developed by Lukensmeyer and Torres and case studies methodology will be

applied in this dissertation.

This dissertation sought to understand more on the implementation of social media by

the Hong Kong Government and what strategy should be applied by the government in

e-engagement.

This study suggested that the Hong Kong Government tend to use social media to

inform, involve and collect views from the public rather than empowering the public in

making public policies. And the Hong Kong Government has successfully increased

public awareness of certain public policies or issues through social media platform but

the acceptance on certain policies or the support rating for the Government may not be

benefited from the use of social media. Based on the analysis and observations from

this study, it provides a useful and practical roadmap for future study and development

of social media in e-engagement.