A post McLuhanian paradigm for public administration communication: case studies in old and new media

Elisabetta Gola

;Fabrizio Meloni

;Riccardo Porcu

2019-01-01

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Abstract

Digital media, web 2.0, social networks had and still have a great -in an incredibly fast period of timeimpact in the way in which individuals and organizations communicate. Public organizations (schools, institutions, health services) arrived late to embrace the need for more transparency, more involvement, participation required by their public/target. Nevertheless new media and new scenarios represent a great opportunity for the public governments and can lead them to move towards new horizons. To make this possible, it is certainly necessary a paradigm change that can break the ordinary flow of information (from the institution to citizens), in favor of a different framework (a participative communication between institution and citizens). This means that institution should, on the one hand, adopt innovative strategies to use traditional communication practices and, on the other hand, implement effective strategies of using digital and social media. This is not always the case (Gola, Meloni, Porcu, 2018; Lovari, 2017). Our goal is to show some examples (in three different fields: public administration, health and cultural heritage/education) of best practices in public communication that have been implemented in the last few years. Our theoretical conclusion is that the paradigm change affects one of the most famous principle of communication affirmed by Marshall McLuhan: “The medium is the message”. We aim to show that in the nowadays media environment, instead, the message defines the medium and structures the relationship (Gola, Meloni, Porcu, in preparation).