Section: Organisational and Strategic Communication
COMMUNICATING EU-REGULATED MATTERS IN THE BLOGOSPHERE. A CASE STUDY OF THE DANISH PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE\'S BLOGGING PRACTICES
Annette AGERDAL-HJERMIND, Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Department of Business Communication
Chiara VALENTINI, Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Department of Business Communication
New and social media – internet-based applications such as (we)blogs, social network sites, online chat forums, text messages, micro blogs, and location-based applications used from computers and smart phones - have increasingly been employed as tools for interpersonal communications and for creating sociality in everyday life (Lomborg, 2011) as well as in diverse organizational communication contexts, for example when organizations want to establish dialogic relations with their key publics (Keller & Miller, 2006). Past studies in corporate blogging show that this form of communication enables a more direct and personal way of communicating with publics by putting a human face on the company, potentially creating relational trust (Kelleher & Miller, 2006;Yang & Lim, 2009), and giving some room for sharing and exchanging opinions (Porter, Sweetser & Chung, 2009; Seltzer & Mitrook, 2007).
The aim of this paper is to explore the role of blogging as a communication strategy for communicating regulations by looking at a specific case of a Danish government agency, the Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) , and its blogging activities towards external publics. DKPTO is part of the Danish Ministry of Business and Growth and its main function is to issue patent and design rights and register trademarks. In 2005 this government agency was one of the first public authorities in Denmark to use blogging as a strategy for communicating with external publics. Since then DKPTO has employed 33 bloggers for communicating EUregulated matters, such as anti-piracy legislation, to its external publics. The extensive use of bloggers and the amount of knowledge accumulated during the past seven years of blogging activities lead us to choose this government agency for our explorative case study.
In this study, we interviewed 24 of the 33 DKPTO bloggers to investigate about their communicative behaviors on the blog and their motivations for blogging, against contextual elements such as the main social actors (publics, management, the industry and other authorities), organizational culture and policies (official and hierarchical organizational culture) and institutional internal elements (government agency’s structure/departments) that influenced bloggers’ decisions in what and how to blog. The interviews were then analyzed according to Attride-Stirling’s thematic network analysis (2001). Internal documents were also used as secondary data. The empirical findings of the study indicate that one of the main reasons for DKPTO to use blogging as a communication strategy is to have an impact on public agenda. In our paper we will present and unfold these findings, and implications and recommendations of using blogging for communicating regulations in government agencies will be presented. (References do not fit into the submission)