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Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages

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What characterizes the discourse that takes place on social media platforms involving municipal pages and their fans? Does the character of the activities on these social media platforms differ in periods preceding or following municipal elections, compared to non-election periods? The article examines the scope and character of Facebook activities on Israeli municipality pages before and after municipal elections, in comparison to non-election periods. For this purpose, the article surveys municipalities’ Facebook presence and analyzes its correlations with socio-demographic and geographic indicators. The distributions of various engagement indices of municipal pages (number of fans, and average number of likes, comments, and shares of posts) are presented, and the contents uploaded by the page managers and fans are compared. We conclude by reviewing municipalities’ Facebook activity and engagement over time, with the aim of identifying changes in Facebook pages in pre-election and post-election periods.
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243© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
M.Z. Sobaci (ed.), Social Media and Local Governments, Public Administration
and Information Technology 15, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-17722-9_13
Chapter 13
Social Media and the City: Analyzing
Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
Azi Lev-On and Nili Steinfeld
Abstract What characterizes the discourse that takes place on social media platforms
involving municipal pages and their fans? Does the character of the activities on
these social media platforms differ in periods preceding or following municipal
elections, compared to non-election periods? The article examines the scope and
character of Facebook activities on Israeli municipality pages before and after
municipal elections, in comparison to non-election periods. For this purpose, the
article surveys municipalities’ Facebook presence and analyzes its correlations with
socio-demographic and geographic indicators. The distributions of various engage-
ment indices of municipal pages (number of fans, and average number of likes,
comments, and shares of posts) are presented, and the contents uploaded by the
page managers and fans are compared. We conclude by reviewing municipalities’
Facebook activity and engagement over time, with the aim of identifying changes in
Facebook pages in pre-election and post-election periods.
13.1 Introduction
What characterizes the discourse that takes place on social media platforms between
municipal governments and their fans? Do the functions and character of activities
on social media platforms differ in periods preceding or following municipal elec-
tions, compared to non-election periods?
Use of the Internet in general, and of municipal Facebook pages in particular,
may have unique signifi cance in periods preceding municipal elections. In pre-
election periods, incumbents and candidates have strong incentives to share their
positions on a variety of issues with the public, respond to questions, and comment
on current events. Such conversations may develop in diverse settings including
parlor and town hall meetings and employ various means such as billboard and street
A. Lev-On (*) N. Steinfeld
Institute for the Study of New Media, Politics and Society, School of Communication,
Ariel University , Ariel , Israel
e-mail: azilevon@gmail.com; nilisteinfeld@gmail.com
244
advertising (Nadeau et al. 2008 ). Gradually, Facebook has become a leading arena
for such public debates and discussions during election campaigns (Lev-On 2015 ).
A local perspective on the Facebook interactions of governments and citizens is
important for several reasons (Bertot et al. 2012 ; Deakin 2010 ; Shkabatur 2010 ).
First, studies indicate that municipality webpage usage is correlated with both pub-
lic trust in local governments (Tolbert and Mossberger 2006 ) and with municipality
interactions with the public (Feeney et al. 2011 ; Garrett and Jensen 2011 ).
Second, decisions at the local level have a direct impact on the everyday lives of cit-
izens, especially in areas where decisions are made at the local rather than the national
level, such as education and social welfare. Municipality Facebook pages, whose con-
tents are easily accessible, may function as attractive arenas in which residents partici-
pate in multi-stakeholder conversations about such issues (Shkabatur 2010 ).
Third, the number of voters in local elections is signifi cantly smaller compared
to the national level, and municipal election results are occasionally determined by
a small number of votes. As a result, the signifi cance of individual voter decisions
may be proportionately greater at the municipal level. Consequently, when a munic-
ipality Facebook post captures public attention, it holds considerable potential to
generate signifi cant change (especially before elections). A local Facebook page
offers signifi cant incentives and opportunities for residents to create conservations
and mobilize activities, especially before elections (Shkabatur 2010 ).
Few studies have analyzed Internet usage at the municipal level, and even fewer
have analyzed the relatively recent appearance of municipality Facebook pages.
Nonetheless, several key insights emerge from these studies:
Scope of adoption and activity : Studies show incremental yet consistent increases in
the scope and sophistication of municipality Facebook use (Deakin 2010 ;
Mossberger 2013 ; Oliveira and Welch 2013 ), as Facebook becomes a major channel
for municipalities for communicating with their local public in Europe and the US
(Bonsón et al. 2012 ; Norris and Reddick 2013 ).
Correlates with e - government adoption of Facebook : Adoption of e-government
platforms by municipalities, and specifi cally social media platforms, has not been
uniform. Studies have found that the important factor affecting municipal-level
adoption and use of new media channels in general, and Facebook in particular, is
municipality size . Municipality size not only infl uences the initial decision to adopt
e-government tools, but also affects the ongoing management of a municipality’s
online presence: Large municipalities have been found to maintain more extensive
activities on their sites and Facebook pages than small municipalities (Ahn 2011 ;
Borge et al. 2009 ; Garrett and Jensen 2011 ; Haug 2008 ; Holden et al. 2003 ; Moon
2002 ; Norris and Reddick 2013 ; Wohlers 2009 ).
Studies also show that the variables that predict usage, in addition to municipal-
ity size, are peripherality (central/peripheral municipalities; Norris and Reddick
2013 ; Wohlers 2009 ; Haug 2008 ), structural attributes such as the functions in
charge of maintaining the municipality’s online presence (Wohlers 2009 ; Carrizales
2008 ; Reddick and Norris 2013 ; Norris and Reddick 2013 ), and population income
and education levels (Reddick and Norris 2013 ).
A. Lev-On and N. Steinfeld
245
Character of activities : A recurrent fi nding in e-government studies is that munici-
pality websites place greater weight on static contents such as tenders and informa-
tion on municipal activities, with much less emphasis on interactive contents (Haug
2008 ; Mossberger 2013 ; Musso et al. 2000 ; Norris and Reddick 2013 ; Scott 2006 ;
Torres et al. 2006 ). The static character of municipality websites is apparently
reproduced in municipalities’ Facebook pages , despite the inherently interactive
character of Facebook. Municipalities tend to disregard the transactional potential
of social media, choosing instead to post informational materials that also appear on
other, more traditional, media (Lovari and Parisi 2012 ; Perlman 2012 ; Graham and
Avery 2013 ; Oliveira and Welch 2013 ).
Several studies illustrate that municipalities rather than residents are the domi-
nant actors in uploading content to municipal websites (Graham and Avery 2013 ;
Hofmann et al. 2013 ; Magnusson et al. 2012 ). Moreover, municipality webpages
may create an impression of municipality indifference since many of the questions
posted by residents on the municipality page wall remain without a response as
municipalities tend to contact residents privately rather than respond in public
(Hand and Ching 2011 ; Strecker 2011 ).
The aim of the current study is to update the research on municipal-level
e- government. This is the fi rst study in Israel to focus on municipal-level Facebook
usage and practices. The few studies exploring Internet adoption by municipalities
in Israel (Purian-Lukach 2011 ; Ravitsch 2005 ; Rotem 2007 ) have focused on
municipality websites . These studies show that Internet use by local governments in
Israel is growing constantly, but large and small municipalities differ in adoption
scope and practices in several respects. Israel-based studies suggest that some local
governments “lag behind” in Internet adoption due to the profi le of their residents
(for example, Ultra-Orthodox or Arab populations). One study on the use of web-
sites in municipal campaigns found a correlation between municipality website use
and municipality size, location (center/periphery), and population age, education,
and income, in line with other studies conducted elsewhere (Lev-On 2014 ).
The current study focuses on Facebook, which has emerged as the main site of
communications involving municipalities and residents (Gulati and Williams 2013 ;
Lev-On 2015 ; Williams and Gulati 2013 ). Israel, with one of the highest Facebook
penetration and usage rates in the world (ComScore 2011 ), is an appropriate site for
the study of residents’ Facebook use for communications with local governments.
Facebook use may be conceivably more appealing to Internet users as a means of
communicating with local governments than dedicated websites: While specifi c
effort must be made to locate a municipality website, a municipality Facebook page
is easily accessible through contents uploaded in one’s own or one’s friends’ per-
sonal feeds. Facebook also allows users to upload contents with greater ease and
immediacy than a municipal websites and allows users to receive messages and
alerts in real time, including push messages routed to smartphones.
Although all municipalities in Israel are required by law to maintain an offi cial
website, no such requirement exists with regard to presence on social media.
Municipalities are similarly not required by law to transmit specifi c information to
residents through the Facebook. This fact adds another dimension to the current
13 Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
246
analysis, as it allows us to compare municipalities that maintain Facebook pages
with those that do not and characterize the “haves” and “have nots” in terms of
demographics and socio-economic indicators.
13.2 Research Questions and Hypotheses
The present study examines the scope and character of Facebook activity at the
municipality level in Israel. In view of the paucity of previous research in this
eld, we present some of the research questions without proposing specifi c
hypotheses.
RQ1: What is the adoption rate of offi cial Facebook pages by municipalities? Due
to Israel’s high Facebook usage statistics, we assume that a signifi cant share
of Israeli municipalities have adopted this platform.
H1: Adoption will be more limited in municipalities with majority Ultra-Orthodox
or Arab populations. This hypothesis is in line with previous studies in Israel
(Purian-Lukach 2011 ; Ravitsch 2005 ; Rotem 2007 ) that found signifi cant dif-
ferences in the prevalence of offi cial websites in such municipalities.
H2: In line with previous studies, we also expect to discover correlations between
municipality Facebook adoption and municipality features, including size,
location (center/periphery), and population age, income, and education.
RQ2: What is the level of engagement with the municipal Facebook pages? To
develop an understanding of the practices on municipality Facebook pages,
we collected data on several engagement measures (number of fans, Likes,
Comments, Shares, and Comment-likes).
RQ3: What is the primary source of the contents uploaded to municipality
Facebook pages—the municipalities themselves or their fans?
RQ4: Does municipality Facebook usage differ during election campaigns, com-
pared to post-election periods and non-election periods?
13.3 Methodology
To analyze municipalities’ activities on Facebook, we used a list of all 75 cities (in
general, municipalities with over 20,000 residents) in Israel, based on information
available on the Central Bureau of Statistics web site. To locate the Facebook page
of each municipality, we used the Google search engine, and in each case, entered
the city’s name in Hebrew, Arabic, and English (Israel’s three offi cial languages).
No relevant Facebook pages were found in the searches in Arabic. The search iden-
tifi ed three municipality Facebook pages in English, and the remainder of the pages
were in Hebrew. We also scanned the municipalities’ own web sites for links to their
Facebook pages.
A. Lev-On and N. Steinfeld
247
One municipality used a personal profi le instead of a Facebook page and was
consequently excluded from the analysis; such usage violates Facebook policy that
prohibits the use of personal profi les by offi cial organizations.
Also excluded from our analyses were several pages, which bore the names of
cities and whose contents concerned city affairs, had been created by residents and
were not maintained by, or had no formal connection to, the relevant municipality,
as we concluded from a search of the page’s authors by reading the pages’ “about”
section, searching the municipality’s web site for a hyperlink to the Facebook page,
or reading through posts by the page managers. One such example is the Facebook
page for Kiryat Gat, described as “the offi cial Kiryat Gat page,” which features the
city emblem and contains contents that are relevant to residents’ lives, including
information originating in the municipality. The page is, however, managed by city
residents and is not an offi cial municipality page.
A total of 43 offi cial municipality Facebook pages were found, and all were
included in our sample. Socio-economic, demographic, and geographic data per-
taining to these cities were collected from the CBS website. These data include the
city’s socio-economic cluster, population’s median age, percentage of 12th graders
who earned a Matriculation Certifi cate in the 2011–2012 school year (the most
recent year for which statistics are available for this measure, which is an indicator
of the mean education level in the city), and location in Israel measured by the
peripherality index developed by the CBS. These measures were selected for the
signifi cance they were found to have in predicting Internet usage, in previous
studies.
1
After collecting the above data on the municipality Facebook pages in our sam-
ple, we applied Netvizz, a Facebook application developed by the Digital Methods
Initiative
2 for downloading Facebook data. The application runs from within
Facebook and uses the Facebook API to mine the contents of posts and comments
on offi cial pages, including information on the posts and comments, such as the post
author (page/user), time of publication, post format (photo, video, status, etc.), and
all engagement measures (number of Likes, Comments, Shares, and Comment-likes
the post received). The results are in tab-separated format and can be uploaded to
Excel and to SPSS for statistical analysis. We used this application to mine all the
messages posted on the offi cial municipality Facebook pages by the page itself and
by fans, as well as all the engagement measures for each post. An Engagement
Index was calculated as an aggregation of the Likes, Comments, Comment-likes,
and Shares for each post on the page. We also mined the contents of the comments
to the posts on each page.
We used Netvizz to mine all posts and comments published on each municipality
page for the 6-month period between October 22, 2012 and April 22, 2013. Several
of the pages were created in the course of this period. For these pages, we analyzed
1 Local government data were taken from the website of the Central Bureau of Statistics at http://
www.cbs.gov.il/reader/cw_usr_view_SHTML?ID=357 . Peripherality data were also taken from
the CBS. See
www.cbs.gov.il/hodaot2008n/24_08_160b.pdf .
2 We thank Digital Methods Initiatives and Bernhard Rider for permission to use their tool.
13 Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
248
all the posts from the date the account was set up until April 22, 2013. Municipal
elections took place in Israel on October 22, 2013, 6 months after the conclusion of
the data collection period. In total, 23,768 posts and 71,338 comments appeared on
43 municipality Facebook pages in this non-election period. These posts and com-
ments constitute the study population.
We also tracked and documented the changes in the number of fans (i.e., number
of “likes” to the page) for each municipality Facebook page at monthly intervals,
beginning from June 2013.
Furthermore, to compare patterns of activity during election campaigns and
other periods, we used Netvizz to mine activity data on municipality Facebook
pages between August 23, 2013 and December 22, 2013, a period beginning 2
months before and ending 2 months after the municipal elections, which were held
in October 22.
To study whether municipal Facebook pages are used by municipalities differ-
ently before elections, after elections, and in non-election periods, we compared
between three periods: the 2 months immediately preceding municipal elections in
Israel (August 23 to October 22, 2013, the date of the nation-wide local elections in
Israel); the 2 months immediately following the elections (October 23 to December
22, 2013); and the corresponding period of the previous year (October 23, 2012 to
December 22, 2012) as a control group.
For each of the three periods, we mined all posts published during that period on
all of the cities’ pages. We then compared the number of posts and measurements of
engagement with the posts (Likes, Comments, Shares, Comment-likes, and engage-
ment) in the three periods. We furthermore compared these measures for cities
where the incumbent mayor lost the elections and cities where the incumbent won
the elections.
Posts related to 42 municipalities were included in the analysis. One municipal-
ity (Nazareth Elith) was excluded from the sample as no posts were published on the
municipality’s Facebook page during this period. In the 2-month period preceding
the elections, from August 23 to October 22, 2013, a total of 7,127 posts were
uploaded to municipality Facebook pages, while in the 2 months following the elec-
tions, from October 23 to December 22, 2013, a total of 7,895 posts were uploaded.
In the control period, October 23 to December 22, 2012, a total of 7,522 posts were
uploaded to municipality Facebook pages.
13.4 Findings
13.4.1 Facebook Presence
Of the 75 cities in Israel, 43 (58.1 %) maintained an offi cial Facebook page during
the data collection period, suggesting an impressive rate of Facebook adoption by
Israeli municipalities. The mean number of posts per page over the 6 months from
A. Lev-On and N. Steinfeld
249
October 22, 2012 to April 22, 2013 was 553, and the mean number of Comments
was 1,659. Likes are the most common mode of engagement with posts: The mean
number of Likes per post was 23.69, the mean number of Comments per post was
3.09, and the mean number of Shares per post was 2.1. The mean number of
Comment-likes (i.e., likes to comments published with regard to a post) per post
was 2.66, and the mean engagement score per post (summarizing all engagement
measures) was 31.55. Figures 13.1 and 13.2 present the distribution of the total
number of posts and Comments per page during the entire period (October 22,
2012 to April 22, 2013). Figure 13.3 presents the distribution of the total number of
Likes per page.
Municipalities are much more active in uploading content to their pages than
users: Of the total 23,768 posts in our sample, 9,930 posts were uploaded by the
municipalities (on average, municipalities uploaded 240 posts on their page) and
13,838 posts were uploaded by all other users (419 posts on average per page). The
content uploaded to the pages varies in format and often includes more than text:
The most prevalent post type was an image: 43 % or 10,117 posts contained an
image. The second most prevalent post type (38 % or 9,071 posts) was a status post,
Fig. 13.1 Posts per page
13 Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
250
which contained only text. A signifi cantly smaller proportion of the posts (14 % or
3,341) were link posts, which contained a URL address (either in or outside
Facebook). Videos were included in 5 % of all posts (or 1,216).
In June 2013, we counted the number of fans per page (users who “like” the
page). Fans are not necessarily residents of the city, but they do express a relation to
it and a desire to remain abreast of the city’s activities. The mean number of munici-
pality page fans was 7,654. Leading this category was Haifa, with 67,403 fans on
June 22, 2013. Or Yehuda, with 45 fans on June 22, 2013, was in last place.
A study of the distribution of fans relative to municipality size indicates that the
number of fans per page does not necessarily correspond to municipality size, as
several small and medium-sized cities lead in the number of their Facebook fans
relative to size. Figures 13.4 and 13.5 present the distribution of municipality
Facebook page fans in absolute terms and relative to municipality size.
The initial mapping of municipality Facebook usage indicates that cities vary
signifi cantly in the scope of their Facebook activity. In addition, the distribution of
Facebook adoption by municipalities is not random, and it is defi ned by the popula-
tion: No municipality with a majority of Arab or Ultra-Orthodox population main-
Fig. 13.2 Comments per page
A. Lev-On and N. Steinfeld
251
tains an offi cial Facebook page. These fi gures, and specifi cally the absence of a
single Facebook page for an Arab or Ultra-Orthodox municipalities, confi rm H1.
To test H2, we used Χ 2 tests to measure Facebook presence with reference to
municipality size. We found that the larger the municipality, the greater the prob-
ability that the municipality maintained an offi cial Facebook page ( Cramers
V = .36; p < .05). Comparing municipalities with and without Facebook presence,
results of Χ 2 tests revealed signifi cant differences for the following socio-economic
indicators:
A city’s socio-economic status was found to be signifi cantly correlated with the
municipality’s Facebook presence or absence. The higher the city’s socio-
economic cluster, the greater the probability that the municipality maintained an
offi cial Facebook page ( Cramers V = .51; p < .001).
The age of the population was also signifi cantly correlated with a municipality’s
Facebook presence or absence. The higher the median age of the population, the
greater the probability that the municipality maintained an offi cial Facebook
page ( Cramers V = .49, p < .001).
Fig. 13.3 Likes for posts on municipal Facebook pages in Israel
13 Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
252
Finally, population education levels, measured as the proportion of all 12th grad-
ers in the city who earned a Matriculation Certifi cate in the 2011–2012 school
year, are also signifi cantly related to municipality Facebook presence. Cities
with a higher percentage of Matriculation Certifi cate earners have a greater prob-
ability of maintaining a Facebook presence ( Cramers V = .36, p < .05).
The above results suggest that cities characterized by more well-off, educated
populations are more likely to utilize Facebook as a communication channel with
residents. No statistically signifi cant correlation was found between peripherality
and municipality Facebook presence. During the study period, several peripheral
municipalities even demonstrated quite vivid Facebook activity and engagement
compared to central municipalities.
13.4.2 Engagement Measures of Municipal Facebook Pages
The engagement score was a summary of all engagement measures: the number
of likes, comments, shares, and comment-likes. The engagement score was infl u-
enced primarily by the number of likes, as liking was the most frequent type of
Fig. 13.4 Distribution of fans by municipality
A. Lev-On and N. Steinfeld
253
engagement associated with municipality Facebook pages. Kfar Saba has the
highest engagement score of 105.16 (the median, however, is only 4, suggesting
that one or several unusual posts received an unusually large number of likes, and
affected the average), followed by Ashkelon ( M = 72.38; Mdn = 40) and Rishon
Lezion ( M = 55.99; Mdn = 3). Figure 13.6 presents the distribution of municipality
Facebook page engagement scores.
13.4.3 Post Origin and Engagement
Facebook pages were much more active than fans in uploading contents: Of the
23,768 posts collected during the study period, 9,930 posts were uploaded by the
pages and 13,838 were uploaded by fans. Posts uploaded by the page attracted
statistically signifi cantly higher engagement rates than posts by users. Results of
Fig. 13.5 Distribution of fans by municipality. The Y axis represents the number of fans per 1,000
residents
13 Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
254
t -tests for independent samples indicate differences in engagement levels with posts
originating in Facebook page owners and citizens. In general, posts by the pages
generated a mean engagement score of 56.89, while posts by users received a mean
engagement score of a mere 13.37. This fi nding is not surprising, as posts made by
pages appear in the timelines of page fans, who are exposed to the page’s posts with-
out having to visit the page itself. In contrast, posts made to municipality pages by
other fans do not appear in the timelines of other fans unless these fans are friends
of the post author.
13.4.4 Comparing Activity and Engagement in Election
and Non-election Periods
Few differences emerged in activity patterns and engagement levels in election and
non-election periods. As noted above, in the 2-month period preceding the elec-
tions, from August 23 to October 22, 2013, a total of 7,127 posts were uploaded to
Fig. 13.6 Average engagement per post by municipalities
A. Lev-On and N. Steinfeld
255
municipality Facebook pages, while in the 2 months following the elections, from
October 23 to December 22, 2013, a total of 7,895 posts were uploaded. In the con-
trol period, October 23 to December 22, 2012, a total of 7,522 posts were uploaded
to the municipality Facebook pages in our sample.
An ANOVA test to compare engagement in these periods shows several signifi -
cant differences in engagement with the municipality Facebook page posts, which
refl ect varying activity levels: First, a signifi cant difference emerged in the mean
engagement scores in these three periods ( F ( 2,22,541 ) = 3.63, p < .05). Using the LSD
post hoc test, the control period (from October to December, 2012) was the period
with the highest mean engagement levels. The mean engagement score in this period
( M = 36.72, SD = 508.52) was signifi cantly higher than in the pre-election period
( M = 23.04, SD = 177.35). While engagement increased after the elections, the
increase was not statistically signifi cant compared to the post-election period
( M = 27.28, SD = 101.87).
Second, a signifi cant difference in the mean number of Comments per post was
found when comparing periods ( F ( 2,22,541 ) = 8.05, p < .001). Results of a LSD post
hoc test show that the most active period, measured by the mean Comments per
post, was the control period (October to December 2012), and in this period, the
number of Comments per post ( M = 3.51, SD = 25.56) was signifi cantly greater than
the number of Comments in either the pre-election period ( M = 2.49, SD = 8.06) or
the post-election period ( M = 2.71, SD = 9.33). While the number of Comments per
post increased after the elections, the increase was not statistically signifi cant com-
pared to the pre-election period.
The three periods differed in the number of Likes per post in each period:
These differences approached, but did not reach statistical signifi cance
( F ( 2,22,541 ) = 2.66, p = .07) and indicate a similar trend: The mean number of likes
per post was highest in the control period (M = 26.66, SD = 389.4), lowest in the
pre-election period ( M = 17.46, SD = 155.69), and the number rose again in the
post-election period ( M = 20.65, SD = 78.71). Although the model is not statisti-
cally signifi cant, the difference between the control and pre-election periods was
signifi cant on the LSD test.
Other signifi cant differences between periods emerged in cities where the incum-
bent mayor was re-elected. Of the 42 municipalities, the incumbent lost the elec-
tions in 10 municipalities. In the remaining 32 municipalities, the incumbent mayor
was re-elected (In no municipality was it the case that the incumbent mayor did not
run in the elections). In total, 18,997 posts were uploaded to Facebook pages of
municipalities in which the incumbent mayor continued to another term, and 3,547
posts on Facebook pages of municipalities in which the incumbent lost the
elections.
The municipality Facebook pages for municipalities whose incumbent mayors
were re-elected showed similar patterns as those found in the total sample of pages:
Signifi cant differences in engagement scores between periods ( F ( 2,18,994 ) = 3.10,
p < .05), and specifi cally between the control period ( M = 39.46, SD = 545.45) and
the pre-election period ( M = 24.6, SD = 194.29), and a slight and non-signifi cant
increase in engagement in the post-election period ( M = 29.06, SD = 109.51).
13 Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
256
It is interesting to note that, with the exception of comments per post, no other
signifi cant differences emerged between periods in the Facebook pages of the 10
municipalities in which the incumbent lost the elections. In these cases, the sole
signifi cant difference ( F ( 2,3,544 ) = 4.18, p < .05) was the difference in the number of
Comments per post in the control period ( M = 2, SD = 5.1) and the pre-election
period ( M = 1.48, SD = 3.9) and the difference between the control period and the
post-election period ( M = 1.6, SD = 4). Thus, the same pattern obtained: the most
active period was the control period, and the period of lowest activity was the pre-
election period.
13.4.5 Distribution of Fans by Municipality and Period
The number of Facebook page fans was recorded for each municipality and each
month from June 2013. These data indicate that in the great majority of these cases,
the number of fans of all municipality Facebook pages increased steadily over time,
and this trend was not affected by pre-election and post-election periods.
Figure 13.7 summarizes the distribution of fans by municipality, for June and
August 2013 (in the pre-election period), October 2013 (the election month), and
Fig. 13.7 Distribution of Facebook page fans by municipality in the pre-election, election, and
post-election periods
A. Lev-On and N. Steinfeld
257
December 2013 (in the post-election period). Figure 13.7 underscores that the
steady increase in fans continued after the elections, with no signifi cant differences
between the pre-election and post-election periods.
13.5 Discussion
The ndings of this study show that municipalities’ adoption of Facebook pages in
Israel is signifi cant. More than one half (58.1 %) of the municipalities maintained
an offi cial Facebook page when the data for this study were collected (between
October 2012 and April 2013), with a mean of 7,565 fans per municipality page.
Facebook adoption is, however, not evenly distributed among cities and popula-
tions: The group of municipalities with no Facebook presence contains a large share
of cities with Arab and Ultra-Orthodox populations, whose cultural norms arguably
impede adoption of social networks by the municipal government. Furthermore, the
low rate at which these municipalities adopt and use social media for communicat-
ing with residents may further increase the gaps between their already weakened
populations and other strong populations that have the means to communicate
directly with their municipalities with greater ease. Needless to say, in the munici-
palities where penetration of social media is low, social media does not constitute an
arena of discourse between the municipality and the public.
Municipalities also showed signifi cant variance in the extent of the activity and
engagement generated by their Facebook pages. In line with fi ndings of many other
studies, the main factor affecting municipality Facebook presence is municipality
size. The larger the population of a municipality, the greater the probability that the
municipality will maintain an offi cial Facebook page. This fi nding makes sense,
since social networks are based on user activity and on networks generated between
users. Therefore, larger populations are naturally more suitable for this type of
activity. The fi nding is also in line with other studies on e-government adoption,
including studies that have found that larger municipalities maintain a larger volume
of activity on their Facebook page (Ahn 2011 ; Borge et al. 2009 ; Garrett and Jensen
2011 ; Haug 2008 ; Holden et al. 2003 ; Moon 2002 ; Norris and Reddick 2013 ;
Wohlers 2009 ). Furthermore, we found that variables related to population charac-
teristics (socio-economic status, education, and median age) are also signifi cantly
related to municipality Facebook presence: The higher a population’s socio-
economic status and education level, the greater the probability that the city will
maintain a Facebook page. Also, the higher the age median of the population, which
normally suggests a more modern and urbanized population, where the birth rate is
lower—the greater the probability of a municipal Facebook page. In contrast to
other studies, we found that a municipality’s location (center/periphery) has no sig-
nifi cant effect on municipality Facebook page presence, with a number of periph-
eral cities maintaining a lively and busy page.
When studying the ratio of fans to municipality size, fi ndings of the present study
show that the ratio is greater in intermediate-size municipalities and not necessarily
13 Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
258
in large municipalities (although obviously the absolute number of fans in large
municipalities is greater). Large cities do not necessarily attract more attention to
their Facebook page. Fans are also more signifi cantly engaged in the municipal
Facebook page in intermediate-size municipalities. To understand why specifi c
municipality Facebook pages attract higher levels of engagement, a more complex
content analysis is needed, which is beyond the scope of this study.
Based on a comparison of municipality Facebook pages in pre-election and post-
election periods, and a control period 1 year prior to elections, the pre-election
period appears to be characterized as having the lowest levels of activity and engage-
ment, contrary to our hypotheses. The growth rate of fans of municipality Facebook
pages over the entire study period remained stable through the data collection
period, and the impact of elections on fan growth was insignifi cant. These trends
emerged in Facebook municipality pages, independent of whether the incumbent
mayor won or lost the elections, which further indicates that Facebook pages were
not used as a major local public sphere during or immediately after elections. Public
debates apparently were conducted in other spheres, including parlor meetings with
candidates, candidates’ web sites or Facebook pages, local newspapers, and other
local sites. Also interesting to note is that the most active period in terms of average
engagement, comments and likes per post, was the control period in late 2012.
When comparing this period to the period before the election, or to the correspond-
ing period 1 year later, it seems that user activity on municipality pages generally
declined. When taking into account that the number of fans for the pages increased
over time, this fi nding may suggest a diminution in the use of municipal Facebook
pages by users, or even a more general downward trend in user engagement on
Facebook, but this cannot be concluded based on the current research’s data.
We also found that a large share of the posts uploaded to municipal pages are
uploaded by the municipality, and that the contents uploaded by municipalities
pages generated higher levels of engagement than contents uploaded by citizens.
These fi ndings indicate that the municipality Facebook page remains a public sphere
that is controlled by municipalities. It will be interesting to see, in future studies,
which types of contents generate the most engagement; such information could be
used as the basis of a municipal strategy to transform its Facebook page into a more
active public sphere, during elections or in non-election periods.
13.6 Summary and Conclusions
This paper explored the scope and character of Facebook page usage by municipali-
ties in Israel. Previous studies point to a rise in government agencies’ use of the
Internet in general, and Facebook in particular, in order to connect with citizens and
promote citizen engagement (Deakin 2010 ; Mossberger 2013 ; Oliveira and Welch
2013 ). Previous studies in Israel that examined local governments’ web-based com-
munications with citizens predated the signifi cant rise in social networks and
focused on the websites of these government agencies (Purian-Lukach
2011 ;
A. Lev-On and N. Steinfeld
259
Ravitsch 2005 ; Rotem 2007 ). The present study, which focuses on Facebook pages
of municipalities in Israel, attempts to fi ll the research lacuna in this respect and
offers a description of the municipalities’ Facebook presence, activity, and engage-
ment, with a comparison of pre-election and post-election periods. The fi ndings
show that Facebook is widely used by municipalities in Israel as a platform for
engaging citizens with city activities and issues. A steady increase in the number of
fans for all pages suggests that these spaces increasingly attract users and citizens
who fi nd them relevant, and possibly effective.
Municipal Facebook pages are arenas of direct engagement between citizens and
their cities. They allow citizens to raise issues concerning the city, become involved
in and remain abreast of events and messages, infl uence other by attracting attention
and engaging other citizens, and take part in local politics. Understanding the ways
they are used by municipalities and by citizens can shed light on this new, increasing
phenomenon of citizen e-participation.
Acknowledgment The study was conducted with the support of the Institute for the Study of
New Media, Politics and Society at Ariel University. We thank Bar Ram, Hadas Schlussel, Valery
Aronov, Veronika Makogon, and Avital Mandel for their assistance in data collection and process-
ing and in the preparation of this manuscript.
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13 Social Media and the City: Analyzing Conversations in Municipal Facebook Pages
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