Government reputation through social media

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the topic of government reputation through social media use. The first chapter presents a research agenda that focuses on building and analyzing government reputation using social media from three perspectives: agency-based, citizen-based and methodological. Then, using machine learning and quasi-experimental methods, the second chapter answers the question of how politicization of a public organization would affect its bureaucratic reputation, both from the agencys perspective and citizens perspective. The third chapter examines whether we can use social media data to evaluate government agencies and whether the results match administratively collected data. By answering these questions, this dissertation bridges gaps in public administration literature by linking two important emerging topics: government reputation and public sector social media use. It also offers evidence-based guidance that can help government better utilize social media as a tool for better communication, engagement and building positive reputation.