e-Government in the Age of Social Media: An Analysis of the Canadian Government's Use of Twitter.

Political actors in Canada are using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The Canadian government has been lauded for its success in the online delivery of services, but it has been criticized for not employing the Internet for more democratic purposes, and little attention has been paid to this most recent development. This article examines the extent to which Twitter is being used by Canadian government departments and agencies. It asks whether governmental use of Twitter fits into previous patterns of service delivery oriented e-government or whether it is taking advantage of the possibility for democratic interaction afforded by social media. Based on a content analysis of Government of Canada tweets, the paper finds that service delivery characterizes government tweets and shows how nominal a commitment the Canadian government has made to using Twitter as part of its well-established and lauded e-government strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]