PRACTICE OF GOVERNMENT PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THE ERA OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THE MINISTRY OF EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY, KENYA

ABSTRACT

The general objective of this researchwas to investigate the practice of government public relations in the era of social media in the Ministry of East African Community. The specific objectives were:to determine the rate of use of social media among employees of the Ministry of East African Community, to examine thesocial media platforms most preferred for internal communication among employees at East African Community, to explore the communication factors that determine the preference of new media platforms for internal info-sharing among employees at East African Community andto investigate the social media policy guiding internal communication at East African Community.The Technology Acceptance Model and Social Cognitive Theoryprovided explanation on the uptake of social media, to analyse the communication factors in preferences and the global arenas ingovernment Public Relations practice. The study employeda mixed method approach where two data collection tools, namely: the semi-structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews wereused. The sample size for survey was 80 participants determined through systematic random sampling method.It recorded responses from 70 participants being a return rate of 87.5%. The study also used purposive sampling technique to select three (3) participants for the in-depth interviews. The studyanalysed qualitative and quantitative data, where the quantitative data wasanalysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage generated through the Statistical Packages for Social Scientist version 21 and presented in tables format, while qualitative data wasanalysed using thematic analysis and presented in report and quotations, extensively used to triangulate the survey data. The results indicate that the rate of social media use was relatively low at 42% among employees of the ministry, although social media seemedsignificant for internal communication. The results also showed that traditional media such as letters and memos were still more trusted for organisational communication than social media, although Facebook was the most preferred of the social media platforms in contextswhere social media applied. The study found ease of use of social media, popularity of the platform, accessibility and relevance of social media as the key communication factors that determine social media preference among employees of East African Community. The study concludes that social media use for internal communication is unavoidable with the growth of new media technology in theKenyan public sectors. The study recommends the need to sensitise people about owning personal social media accounts as prerequisites if they are to maximise the use of social media in their day-to-daycommunication. The study also recommends the need to dissuade the public from relegating social media to inferior or informal functions yet it is also an important channel oforganisational communication. From the results there is need to review communication strategy of organisations to mainstream social media platforms as forms of new media communication in the globalised world.