The current stage of social media use in government can at best be called "Government 1.5", because the dominant pattern of communication is still unidirectional inculcation rather than bi-directional dialogue. One of the salient features of social media lies in mutual communication, sharing and collaboration, but the engagement of citizens is still weak.

Most micro blog accounts are inactive, acting as silent audiences of influential opinion leaders. In other words, unless citizens are energized to engage in and contribute to public dialogue, there will not be any difference between government micro blogs and web portals.

Microblogging enables government to be more responsible and accountable, but its appropriate use is still far away. The distribution of the benefits of government microblogging is also questionable, because it excludes a majority of citizens without access to the Internet or essential computer skills. What makes the problem worse is that such people are also most in need of public services.

Micro blogs are mainly opened by specific government agencies, which is at odds with the trend of e-government integration and whole-of-government approach. Many cities have established one-stop service centers, but citizens have to visit each agency's micro blog to inquire about specific policy issues. The boundary between formal and informal use of government micro blogs is still vague, and it is crucial to regulate their use.

In the initial stage, the use of social media primarily depends on the enthusiasm and industriousness of government officials. The lack of formal guidance and regulations impedes its development, but the formalization and institutionalization of microblogging can change the behaviors of agencies and officials. Officials without sufficient training commonly repost their speeches or documents online, and their officialese further confounds netizens.

The official top-down promotion has drastically increased government microblogging, but it has also generated lots of ghost accounts. Some agencies, which opened accounts under pressure from higher authorities, seldom update or follow up their micro blogs.

In Beijing, for example, county- and district-level governments were found to have posted health and weather news on their micro blogs to pass the scrutiny of higher-level authorities. For e-government development, too, many government websites were mandatorily established but then left unattended.

The use of social media has raised citizens' expectations for more effective, efficient and customized services, and the government will find it hard to meet their demands. An increasing number of government agencies and officials are likely to adopt microblogging and other social media applications because of the strong top-down mandate. But how to better use the new technologies? If microblogging is not used to promote transparency, interactivity and collaboration, it will become a replica of government websites.

The author is a research fellow at Nanyang Centre for Public Administration, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

(China Daily 02/18/2014 page9)