Comparative Scientometric Analysis in Social Media: What Can We Learn? And What Is Next? - Information and Communication Technologies in Public Administration - page 108

In this sense, most of these articles were published in Information Science and
Library Science journals (52.73%), followed closely by Communication journals
(38.18%), and the rest (9.09%) are set out in Public Administration journals.
In this regard, 81.03% ( n = 47) of the articles are published in two journals in
Information Science and Library Science— Government Information Quarterly
(51.72%) and Social Science Computer Review (29.31%). Meanwhile, in the case
of Communication journals, Table 5.1 shows that 42.86% of the articles pub-
lished correspond to a single journal, New Media and Society , which accounts
for 18 of the 42 articles included in this knowledge. Finally, in the case of Public
Administration, there is no clear preference for published articles about social
media.
RQ2: What aspects of social media are most commonly addressed in published
research in the fields of Public Administration, Information Science and
Library Science, and Communication?
Table 5.3 shows that, recently, it has been suggested that the web has moved
into a new phase, which is characterized by social networking activities, online
collaboration, and user sharing, that is, a shift from a publishing medium to a plat-
form for social participation and interaction. This is due to the way that Internet
brought with it various visions and scholarly discussions regarding it impact on
politics and election campaigns. Hence, the main social media topics are as fol-
lows: (a) how the politicians use social media tools in their elections campaign:
Communication, 28.57%, and Information Science and Library Science, 20.69%;
and (b) how social media reduces inequalities, enhances democracy, and increases
participation; Communication, 47.62%; Information Science and Library Science,
25.86%; and Public Administration 30.00%. In addition, Table 5.4 shows that
these research topics have increased interest among scholars and academic research-
ers since 2011.
These research topics are followed distantly by how public administrations are
using social media to promote information disclosure, transparency, and account-
ability; that is, there are studies that reflect on how social media technologies may
help public sector professionals to get involved in the process of distribution and
communication and the real-time information sharing and responsiveness chal-
lenge in government: Communication, 9.52%; Information Science and Library
Science, 17.24%; and Public Administration, 10.00%. In addition, it is interest-
ing that researchers analyze how social media facilitate and involve the public ser-
vices delivery: Communication, 9.52%; Information Science and Library Science,
15.52%; and Public Administration, 40.00%.
Meanwhile, there are few studies that have analyzed the problem of adap-
tion to the existing organizational culture and institutional structure of public
sector organizations. Although it is very important to analyze whether social