Just like political parties governments must adapt to the demands of the digital sphere as
their legitimacy is dependent on their ability to communicate decisions to citizens. However
despite abundant research into how the Internet is changing political communications little is
known about how governments use digital technologies to communicate with citizens. There is
also little knowledge of how different political systems shape the use of technology in this
respect. Therefore from a comparative perspective this study examines how government
organisations in Germany and Great Britain are using websites and social media to interact with
citizens and the media on a daily basis. Its empirical approach involves a content analysis of
government websites and social media pages and a social network analysis of Twitter networks.
Its findings show that government ministries predominantly use websites and social media for
one-way communication and that social media is supporting the personalisation of government
communications.
