En una escala de todo el municipio. Uso de redes sociales en municipios italianos: información e interacción

La contribución tiene como objetivo investigar el papel de las redes sociales en los gobiernos locales italianos en el escenario de «modelos de madurez», entre el uso informativo e interactivo de los medios digitales. En particular, el documento presenta los resultados de un estudio piloto en una pequeña muestra de municipios italianos que generalmente adoptan sus perfiles de Facebook para comunicarse con los ciudadanos. Incluso si se dedican muchos trabajos empíricos a este tema, se presta menos atención a las necesidades y expectativas de los ciudadanos en la literatura. El artículo tiene el propósito de proporcionar una mejor comprensión de los comportamientos de los ciudadanos en las páginas institucionales de Fb con el propósito más amplio de explorar qué significa «información» e «interacción» en la relación específica ciudadano-municipal en un entorno digital.Como sugieren los resultados, el uso de las redes sociales basado en la información es necesario para mejorar la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos y su uso efectivo de los servicios públicos. Los municipios, que explotan su «proximidad», tienen un papel fundamental como «centro de información», a través de la integración y reconexión de los contenidos de información, ya sean de producción propia o producidos por otras partes interesadas.The contribution aims at investigating the role of social media in the Italian local governments in the «maturity models» scenario, between informative and interac-tive use of digital media. In particular, the paper presents the results of a pilot study on a little sample of Italian municipalities who usually adopt their Facebook profiles to communicate with citizens. Even if many empirical works are devoted to this issue, less attention is paid at the citizens’ needs and expectations in lite-rature. The article has the purpose to provide a better understanding of citizens’ behaviors on institutional Fb’s pages with the wider purpose to explore what «in-formation» and «interaction» mean in the specific relationship citizen- municipal in a digital environment. As findings suggest, the information-based use of social media is necessary to improve citizens’ quality of life and their effective use of public services. Munici-palities, exploiting their «proximity», have a pivotal role as «hub of information», through the integration and reconnection of information contents whether self-produced or produced by other stakeholders

Re-Connecting Scholars' Voices: An historical Review of Public Communication in Italy and New Challenges in the Open Government Framework

In an international theoretical framework relating to the challenges of digitalization on public sector communication, the article focuses on the open government process to present a historical review of the public sector communication as it has developed in Italy in the past thirty years. Definitions, reforms and the regulatory framework, structures and competences, different communication approaches and goals are collected here thanks to those "scholars' voices" which have fuelled the scientific debate on communication in public administrations since the 1990s. A diachronic approach is necessary in order to investigate the dynamic nature of the relationship between citizens and public sector organizations in a wider changing context and to further grasp the influence of digital technologies, with their impact on communication strategies and paradigms. The focus of the contribution is on the challenges that communication is facing in the new digital environment and in the contemporary scenario of open government. As the authors underline, the use of digital media is often seen as functional both to promoting a culture of transparency, openness and accessibility and to overcoming the traditional limits of the bureaucratic organizations, but there are some opportunities and risks to consider. So, the final part of the article offers a reflection on the consequences of digitalization. It introduces some key aspects of the contemporary debate on public sector communication in general and specifically in Italy, offering a critical discussion on those topics – new skills and professional profiles, training programmes, internal management, multichannel strategies, etc. - that are revealing their complexity in the new relational and organizational context

DIVERSE eppur VICINE

In the broader scenario of social communication, the volume deals with the issue of the communication of social responsibilities: a field which, in recent years, has been offering interesting examples of how it is possible to reconcile corporate values and goals with ethical purposes and values in Italy. Starting from the analysis of some projects carried out by companies and associations in the Italian context, the authors analyse the ways in which people build, manage and renew a relationship between apparently distant and yet close subjects

Chapter Migranti e rappresentazioni. Linguaggio, integrazione, discriminazione

Public discussion on migration is addressed through frame and signification processes in which journalistic production plays a crucial role. Compared to the past, more diversified and articulated frames are adopted in the current representation of migration. Publics grassroots productivity goes along and overlaps with journalistic contents. The chapter aims to investigate how discussion on migration develops, with a focus on the innovations introduced by digital technologies and social web and the new possibilities for access, participation and production of contents by the audience