The use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic: A new instrument for managing health risks?
The public sector uses social media (SM) for the communication and engagement of citizens. The use of social media quickly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The literature review highlights that the analysis concerning SM use in public administration is limited at the level of local authorities.
Moreover, the analysis considers only a few foreign countries, with little attention to the Italian case. Consequently, this study aims to analyze the use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic within the more affected Italian regions.
The results highlight that the use of social media is different in the pandemic era.
Furthermore, the results also highlight that the above-mentioned Italian regions apply SM to communicate to citizens to manage health risks.
At the same time, people tend to interact with institutions more than in the past. Finally, each region uses social media with a different strategy to manage the pandemic and, consequently, to reach citizens.
Keywords: Health risk, Social media, COVID-19, Italian regions, Local authority.
