An exploratory study of social media's role in facilitating public participation in e-rulemaking using computational text analysis tools

Government agencies struggle to use social media effectively to engage and involve the public. However, we know little about how individuals and groups on the other side of these efforts actually use social media to participate in government decision-making processes, independent of government-led engagement efforts. This exploratory study aims to address this by looking closer at how Twitter users self-mobilize after a particular event in which they may be motivated to participate. Specifically, the study examines Twitter activity before and after the United States Department of the Interior proposed changes to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulations that would limit public access to agency records. Acomputational text analysis of 5000 tweets using #FOIA over a 99-day period showed significant changes in the sentiment of the dialog before and after the proposed rule was announced. Furthermore, structural topic models show evidence of a diverse set of stakeholders using Twitter to exercise voice and share information about the proposed rule. Findings suggest that citizens and interest groups are taking to Twitter to mobilize participation in the rulemaking process prompting the need for more research on how the public uses social media to influence government decision-making, absent of government-led engagement efforts.