CEE e|Dem and e|Gov Days 2020

How do Social Media affect public administration and policy? For the public administration, social networks are a prime opportunity to strengthen citizen relationships. Particularly in times of a pandemic this may prove an invaluable means of communications. In the political domain, however, Social Media can shape politics and may influence the run of history. Not only has it become a prime media to communicate with the electorate, it may also shape elections and political decision making. On the one hand, it is a positive development that citizens have many diverse ways to inform themselves and have access to original documents in a way inconceivable to former generations; it also enables them to express themselves and voice their opinions bypassing traditional media and political hierarchies, simply as citizens. On the other hand, however, Social Media are targets of disinformation by both non-state and state actors. There is also the tendency to create Social Media "bubbles", self-reinforcing echo chambers, which exist on all parts of the political spectrum. If social networks generate such bubbles, the very promise of Social Media is in danger - an open and hierarchy-free discourse among people and citizens.