| Abstract |
This study investigated the extent to which media richness, dialogic loop, and content
type affect citizen engagement with local government social media information on
the Covid-19 pandemic. Quantitative content analysis through scraping of Facebook
posts by the local government was employed in this study. Effects of the determinant
variables was tested using negative binomial regression. Results show that both
media richness and dialogic loop have significant and positive effects on citizens'
engagement. This means that the richer the media, and the more dialogic features
present in a Facebook post, the higher the turnout of reactions, shares, and comments of such post. Content type, on the other hand, was found to have no significant effect, implying that the number of content categories a certain post belongs to
does not influence engagement from citizens. The study focused only on the local
government's pandemic information posted on Facebook. Local governments should
continue utilizing social media in disseminating pandemic information, and in the process, consider maximum utilization of the social media features to generate more
engagement from its citizens. This study is the first to determine the factors affecting
citizen engagement with government social media during the Covid-19 pandemic in
the Philippine context. |
Mindanao State
University - Iligan Institute of Technology