Government communication on Social Media during Coronavirus pandemic: a citizen perception analysis

During the coronavirus pandemic, one of the main communication channels used to inform citizens was social media. Social media enables people to communicate with each other by removing time and spatial constraints to share knowledge, experience, opinions and ideas. This study provides insights about how government communication through social media is perceived by the citizens during the coronavirus. To analyze this matter, 306 German citizens were asked in an online survey about how they perceived government social media communication. Key findings include the following: (1.) Ci- tizens mainly get information about the coronavirus pandemic on social media channels, (2.) Citizens perceive social media as a communication channel during the corona pandemic between useful and essential and, (3.) Social media is mainly chosen by the citizens as a communication channel because of the possibility to interact with others. These findings will help governments develop future strate- gies to foster communication addressing its citizen via social media channels more efficiently.