“Citizens’ social media adoption in Paraguay”

Abstract

This article aims to identify which factors are associated with Paraguayan citizens’ use of social media in citizen-government relations. We gathered data using a vignette-survey with which responses to four public service problems were recorded, apart from scores on perceived effectiveness, capability, social influence, trust in government, trust in social media infrastructure, and social media anxiety. Multivariate analysis was used to test hypotheses. Perceived effectiveness, social influence and trust in social media infrastructures were found to be significantly correlated with citizens’ use of social media to report public service issues. On the other hand, capability, trust in government and social media anxiety were not found to be associated with citizens’ social media use. The results urge us to further theorize and disentangle how perceived effectiveness, social influence and trust in proprietary social media infrastructures affect digital citizen engagement and participation, and under what conditions proprietary social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter contribute to a vibrant democracy.