Papers by Panos Panagiotopoulos
IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society., 2023
Developments in data science methods have changed how we design, review and publish social scienc... more Developments in data science methods have changed how we design, review and publish social science research. The impact on academic development has been multifaceted: data science methods have created new research opportunities while posing additional demands on training researchers to develop advanced data skills and apply them to research outputs. For early career researchers, meeting existing work demands and investing time in developing such skills can be a difficult proposition. In this paper, we consider the challenges that doctoral and early career researchers face when it comes to short- and long-term career goals and discuss how to collectively overcome them. Recommendations are organised around the key areas identified by the Learning, Leading, Linking framework. We emphasise that doctoral researchers in social sciences should be supported to develop their skills and pursue meaningful collaborations with other disciplines and external stakeholders as domain specialists.
New Technology, Work and Employment, 2021
The article offers a novel conceptualisation of unions' digital audiences and considers how their... more The article offers a novel conceptualisation of unions' digital audiences and considers how their characteristics affect the practice of organising. Data were collected from the central Twitter accounts of 33 British unions resulting in 167,658 tweets and information from their 357,687 followers. Using textual and network methods, the analysis shows how unions interact with large, diverse and unexpected audiences including members, other individuals and organisations within their stakeholder groups. The findings support Twitter's role as a tool for organising in directions like stakeholder engagement and reaching new audiences. The article further discusses how unions can respond to the imagined characteristics of their digital audiences and develop an approach to engagement that builds on the relationship between audiences and content.
Science of The Total Environment, 2019
Alternative approaches to environmental regulation have gained much attention in recent years. In... more Alternative approaches to environmental regulation have gained much attention in recent years. Information-based regulation is an increasingly popular type of instrument that refers to the use of ratings, rankings, labels, online inventories and similar public disclosure practices by regulators. Such schemes vary in their design, disclosure formats, mechanisms to influence behaviour and performance. Theoretical and practical questions remain about whether and how regulators can use voluntary and/or beyond compliance disclosures. The article develops a classification of information-based schemes based on whether the scheme is mandatory or voluntary, and whether the disclosures reveal compliance or beyond compliance performance behaviours. The classification is used to show how the different schemes (traditional, assurance, performance and proactive) work in practice with their associated risks, benefits and mechanisms. While regulators are experimenting with this new frontier of regulation, it is not yet clear whether all types of schemes will be sufficiently robust to deliver on the promise they hold for enthusiasts of smart regulation. We conclude with implications and future research questions on the nature of voluntariness and compliance in information-based regulation.
Government Information Quarterly, 2018
Studies in digital government research have not sufficiently considered the internal networking a... more Studies in digital government research have not sufficiently considered the internal networking aspects of social media beyond interactions with the public. This article examines the function of social media as informal networks of professional practice within the public sector. The empirical study is based on a longitudinal analysis of the Twitter hashtag community #localgov used by British local government actors (dataset of 235,681 tweets posted within 2013-2015). In a period of significant budget reductions, Twitter conversations involved a wide range of responses about the impact of the cuts and future of services. #Localgov shows high level of cross-service exchanges in the institutional sharing of good practice while the dynamics of interaction reflect the traditional landscape of intergovernmental relationships in England. We argue about the importance and characteristics of hashtag communities like #localgov as spaces that bring together different actors with a public sector interest.
Government Information Quarterly, 2014
ABSTRACT How social media can enable opportunities for collaboration between citizens and governm... more ABSTRACT How social media can enable opportunities for collaboration between citizens and governments is an evolving issue in theory and practice. This paper examines the dynamic aspects of collaboration in the context of the 2011 riots in England. In August 2011, parts of London and other cities in England suffered from extensive disorder and even loss of human lives. Based on a dataset of 1746 posts by 81 local government Twitter accounts during or shortly after the riots, we explore how local authorities attempted to reduce the effects of the riots and support community recovery. Using Twitter's conversational and rapid update features, they produced a variety of informational and actionable messages with clear calls for offline or online action. In some cases, collective against the riots evolved in a mutual way: not only citizens were mobilized by local authorities, but also local authorities actively promoted actions initiated by citizens.
Government Information Quarterly, , 2017
Social media have been widely embraced by governments for information dissemination and engagemen... more Social media have been widely embraced by governments for information dissemination and engagement but less is known about their value as information sources. Crowdsourced content from social media can improve inclusivity in policy development but it is not always clear how it can form part of policy evidence. The paper builds on the conceptual framework of crowd capabilities to examine the value of social media data in evidence-based policy. Acquisition and assimilation – the two elements of crowd capabilities – drive our exploratory case analysis in the context of agricultural policies in the UK. The study combined qualitative data from interviews and workshops with an analysis of networks of farmers on Twitter. Policy makers were broadly positive about the immediacy, cost-effectiveness and diversity of useful input that can be sourced from online sources. Limitations were identified in terms of representation and inclusion of participants in large datasets that are sourced from open platforms. We compare social media data to traditional sources of evidence and further reflect on the new capabilities that can support the needs of policy makers in this endeavor.
Government Information Quarterly, 2017
Social media have been widely embraced by governments for information dissemination and engagemen... more Social media have been widely embraced by governments for information dissemination and engagement but less is known about their value as information sources. Crowdsourced content from social media can improve inclusivity in policy development but it is not always clear how it can form part of policy evidence. The paper builds on the conceptual framework of crowd capabilities to examine the value of social media data in evidence-based policy. Acquisition and assimilation – the two elements of crowd capabilities – drive our exploratory case analysis in the context of agricultural policies in the UK. The study combined qualitative data from interviews and workshops with an analysis of networks of farmers on Twitter. Policy makers were broadly positive about the immediacy, cost-effectiveness and diversity of useful input that can be sourced from online sources. Limitations were identified in terms of representation and inclusion of participants in large datasets that are sourced from open platforms. We compare social media data to traditional sources of evidence and further reflect on the new capabilities that can support the needs of policy makers in this endeavor.
waset.ac.nz
Abstract—The new status generated by technological advancements and changes in the global economy... more Abstract—The new status generated by technological advancements and changes in the global economy raises important issues on how communities and organisations need to innovate upon their traditional processes in order to adapt to the challenges of the Knowledge Society. ...
Social media monitoring and visualisation tools can be a source of ideas to improve inclusivity i... more Social media monitoring and visualisation tools can be a source of ideas to improve inclusivity in policy development beyond traditional influencers. The aim of this project is to develop both practical insights and an academic case study of how social media data, particularly from Twitter, are shaping new modes of governance in the digital economy.
The report describes a pilot application of social media analysis and visualisation in the area of food and farming regulation. The study involved two main tasks: (1) an online data collection and analysis exercise to map farming and agricultural networks on Twitter and (2) a series of interviews and workshops to examine key challenges and information requirements related to the use of social media data. The research was carried out in collaboration with a partner organisation, the Better Regulation Team of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The online data collection exercise was based on Chorus (chorusanalytics.co.uk), which is a social media analytics tool designed to support social science research. Drawing from this case study, the report discusses key challenges for government departments and other public sector organisations in the process of adopting similar tools.
British Academy of Management (BAM) 2015 proceedings, Sep 2015
One of the promising aspects of social media in government is the opportunity to crowdsource cont... more One of the promising aspects of social media in government is the opportunity to crowdsource contributions to public policy problems. Although it is now more evident that governments are embracing social media as part of their information dissemination and engagement plans, there is less knowledge about the use of social media as information sources. This paper presents the findings of an ongoing study with a large government department in the UK that aims to examine the value of social media in this context. Drawing from a series of interviews, the study identifies two main directions: (1) developing tools and internal workflows that can convert input from social media to useful content and (2) challenges around understanding how groups of interest amongst the public are using social media.
British Academy of Management (BAM) 2015 proceedings , Sep 2015
Digital communications using social media are an important aspect of trade union renewal as they ... more Digital communications using social media are an important aspect of trade union renewal as they offer opportunities for unions to disseminate their messages and engage with new audiences. As unions are increasingly using social media, it is important to examine their impact on new forms of engagement and evolving processes of union renewal. This paper presents the findings of a study that aims to map the use of Twitter by unions in Britain. A dataset of over 62,000 tweets was collected from the 34 general accounts of unions affiliated with the Trade Union Congress over the period 2013-14. Initial analysis suggests that Britain’s unions have largely embraced Twitter to support their campaigning, social and political advocacy activities. The paper discusses plans for further analysis and interpretation of findings.
14th IFIP Electronic Government (EGOV) and 7th Electronic Participation (ePart) Conference 2015, Sep 2015
Public sector organisations seem to be embracing social media for information dissemination and e... more Public sector organisations seem to be embracing social media for information dissemination and engagement, but less is know about their value as information sources. This paper draws from the notion of the imagined audience to examine how policy teams in the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) conceptualise the value of social media input. Findings from a series of interviews and workshops suggest that policy makers are broadly positive about sourcing useful input from social media in topics like farming and environmental policies, however audience awareness emerges as an important limitation. As different groups of the public use social media for professional activities, policy makers attempt to develop their own capacities to navigate through audiences and understand whom they are listening to. The paper makes suggestions about the technical, methodological and policy challenges of overcoming audience limitations on social media.
For organisations that interface with a large audience (i.e. governments, businesses, consumer bo... more For organisations that interface with a large audience (i.e. governments, businesses, consumer bodies, non-profits), there are expectations that engagement on social media can improve responsiveness. The paper develops a framework of social media engagement based on a case study with food governance and consumer organisations in the UK and Ireland. Application of the framework identifies three key capabilities that can frame the contribution of social media engagement in this context: (1) consistency in managing social interactions, (2) creating content to engage with specific audiences and (3) using social media as information sources to develop network alertness. Moving beyond simply characterising social media engagement in terms of the speed and volume of social interactions, this study contributes to a more systematic examination of the concept as an enabler of organisational responsiveness.
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Oct 2014
Objective
To examine the use and impact of social media on 2-way communication between consumers... more Objective
To examine the use and impact of social media on 2-way communication between consumers and public organizations in the food safety and nutrition area.
Methods
In-depth qualitative study conducted between October, 2012 and January, 2013, using semi-structured interviews in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Sixteen professionals worked on the public interface within 5 national organizations with a role in communicating on food safety and nutrition issues in this thematic analysis.
Results
Five main themes were identified: gradual shift toward social media–based queries and complaints; challenges and limitations of social media to deal with queries and complaints; benefits of using social media in query and complaint services; content redesign driven by social media use; and using social media to learn more about consumers.
Conclusion and Implications
Social media penetrated and brought new opportunities to food organizations' interactions with the public. Given the increasing use of social media by the public, food organizations need to explore such new opportunities for communication and research.
Internet, Politics, Policy 2014: Crowdsourcing for Politics and Policy, Sep 2014
Crowdsourcing has mainly been seen as relevant to citizen-government relationships, however exper... more Crowdsourcing has mainly been seen as relevant to citizen-government relationships, however expertise within the government can be an important source of policy innovation and at the same time reflect actual processes of institutional change. This paper presents findings from #localgov, which is a Twitter hashtag mainly used by local government professionals in the UK. From an initial dataset that includes 146,981 tweets from June 2013 to June 2014, we focus the analysis on messages related to service innovation and reform in the context of budget reductions in local government. This includes reactions to the spending Reviews in June 2013 and December 2013 that announced further cuts. The study points to the importance of endogenous sources of crowdsourcing since we find that informal networking tools like Twitter can accelerate institutional sharing and cross-service interaction. Nevertheless, Twitter discussions reflect a traditionally complicated landscape of intergovernmental relationships in England where the central-local duality remains strong.
British Academy of Management (BAM) 2014 Conference Proceedings , Sep 2014
Mobile communications enable reaching new audiences and improving responsiveness in a variety of ... more Mobile communications enable reaching new audiences and improving responsiveness in a variety of engagement contexts such as marketing, fund raising and policy-making. While mobile engagement can transcend traditional boundaries, there is a lot more to learn about its effects. This article examines the impact in the context of a large trade union organisation in the UK. A survey with 176 union members explores their dispositions towards mobile technologies and potential for engagement. Members showed mixed interest about certain features of professional networking via mobile devices, while the perceived impact of mobile computing in their everyday lives was the only variable explaining these attitudes. Hence, for organisations such as trade unions there might be some good scope to approach mobile-savvy audiences as their added value is well articulated.
How social media can enable opportunities for collaboration between citizens and governments is a... more How social media can enable opportunities for collaboration between citizens and governments is an evolving issue in theory and practice. This paper examines the dynamic aspects of collaboration in the context of the 2011 riots in England. In August 2011, parts of London and other cities in England suffered from extensive disorder and even loss of human lives. Based on a dataset of 1746 posts by 81 local government Twitter accounts during or shortly after the riots, we explore how local authorities attempted to reduce the effects of the riots and support community recovery. Using Twitter's conversational and rapid update features, they produced a variety of informational and actionable messages with clear calls for offline or online action. In some cases, collective against the riots evolved in a mutual way: not only citizens were mobilized by local authorities, but also local authorities actively promoted actions initiated by citizens.
British Journal of Industrial Relations (in press), Jan 2014
This article assesses the use of social media in union communications based on an international s... more This article assesses the use of social media in union communications based on an international survey with 149 unions affiliated with UNI Global Union. High expectations of union modernisation, leadership and pressures from members are likely to drive the agenda of social media within unions. However, the actual use of different channels is based on organisational variables such as membership base and participation in communities of practice. Beliefs about the anticipated benefits and risks of social media were not found to be influential in these early assessments. Implications for union communication strategies are discussed.
This paper aims to examine how trade union members perceive opportunities for online engagement a... more This paper aims to examine how trade union members perceive opportunities for online engagement and what the differences are between traditional and online audiences. The empirical work is based on a survey of members of a Greek union in the banking sector. The findings outline the characteristics of an audience that is likely to support information sharing and networking activities on the web. For this audience, traditional levels of loyalty and union participation were not strongly related with perceptions about the union's online presence. Instead, Internet skills and experiences had a dominant effect. The implications of this study suggest that trade unions have to actively seek knowledge about the characteristics of their new audience and adapt communications strategies accordingly.
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Papers by Panos Panagiotopoulos
The report describes a pilot application of social media analysis and visualisation in the area of food and farming regulation. The study involved two main tasks: (1) an online data collection and analysis exercise to map farming and agricultural networks on Twitter and (2) a series of interviews and workshops to examine key challenges and information requirements related to the use of social media data. The research was carried out in collaboration with a partner organisation, the Better Regulation Team of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The online data collection exercise was based on Chorus (chorusanalytics.co.uk), which is a social media analytics tool designed to support social science research. Drawing from this case study, the report discusses key challenges for government departments and other public sector organisations in the process of adopting similar tools.
To examine the use and impact of social media on 2-way communication between consumers and public organizations in the food safety and nutrition area.
Methods
In-depth qualitative study conducted between October, 2012 and January, 2013, using semi-structured interviews in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Sixteen professionals worked on the public interface within 5 national organizations with a role in communicating on food safety and nutrition issues in this thematic analysis.
Results
Five main themes were identified: gradual shift toward social media–based queries and complaints; challenges and limitations of social media to deal with queries and complaints; benefits of using social media in query and complaint services; content redesign driven by social media use; and using social media to learn more about consumers.
Conclusion and Implications
Social media penetrated and brought new opportunities to food organizations' interactions with the public. Given the increasing use of social media by the public, food organizations need to explore such new opportunities for communication and research.
The report describes a pilot application of social media analysis and visualisation in the area of food and farming regulation. The study involved two main tasks: (1) an online data collection and analysis exercise to map farming and agricultural networks on Twitter and (2) a series of interviews and workshops to examine key challenges and information requirements related to the use of social media data. The research was carried out in collaboration with a partner organisation, the Better Regulation Team of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The online data collection exercise was based on Chorus (chorusanalytics.co.uk), which is a social media analytics tool designed to support social science research. Drawing from this case study, the report discusses key challenges for government departments and other public sector organisations in the process of adopting similar tools.
To examine the use and impact of social media on 2-way communication between consumers and public organizations in the food safety and nutrition area.
Methods
In-depth qualitative study conducted between October, 2012 and January, 2013, using semi-structured interviews in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Sixteen professionals worked on the public interface within 5 national organizations with a role in communicating on food safety and nutrition issues in this thematic analysis.
Results
Five main themes were identified: gradual shift toward social media–based queries and complaints; challenges and limitations of social media to deal with queries and complaints; benefits of using social media in query and complaint services; content redesign driven by social media use; and using social media to learn more about consumers.
Conclusion and Implications
Social media penetrated and brought new opportunities to food organizations' interactions with the public. Given the increasing use of social media by the public, food organizations need to explore such new opportunities for communication and research.
regulation is an increasingly popular type of instrument that refers to the use of ratings, rankings, labels,
online inventories and similar public disclosure practices by regulators. Such schemes vary in their design, disclosure
formats, mechanisms to influence behaviour and performance. Theoretical and practical questions remain
aboutwhether and howregulators can use voluntary and/or beyond compliance disclosures. The article develops
a classification of information-based schemes based on whether the scheme is mandatory or voluntary, and
whether the disclosures reveal compliance or beyond compliance performance behaviours. The classification is
used to show how the different schemes (traditional, assurance, performance and proactive) work in practice
with their associated risks, benefits andmechanisms. While regulators are experimenting with this new frontier
of regulation, it is not yet clear whether all types of schemes will be sufficiently robust to deliver on the promise
they hold for enthusiasts of smart regulation. We conclude with implications and future research questions on
the nature of voluntariness and compliance in information-based regulation.