Federal Agency Blogs in Transition : Comparison of Late Bush Administration and Early Obama Administration Use of Blogs

Blogs by governmental agencies are promising vehicles for increasing the transparency of agency actions, publicizing their missions, addressing issues with their publics and collaborating across organizational or geographic boundaries. Most scholars and observers agree that blogs have the potential to change the relationship between the leadership in an organization, its members and other stakeholders, and interested publics. The informality, immediacy, and level of interaction afforded by blogs make it possible to lower barriers and open new channels for real communication. Top-down communication with delays for editing, printing, and distributing are replaced by individually penned missives sent electronically 24-7. David Wyld, in his IBM Center for the Study of Government examination of the blogging revolution within government, notes that “blogging promotes a new sense of openness with an organization’s stakeholders, including employees, customers, the public, and the media.” (2007, 25) In a largely descriptive survey of blogging by political actors, he finds that blogs have great potential to change the ways in which government agencies and public officials conduct their activities. He also points to the need for further research in this area as there has been little empirical, social science research exploring the circumstances under which such positive outcomes will occur, especially for organizations operating in the political or administrative arenas