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This study investigates how emerging digital technologies, particularly generative AI tools, are transforming public sector communication in Europe, highlighting the profound intersection between public organizations, AI, and human interactions. In particular, it explores the opportunities and risks that public sector communicators face as they deal with and integrate digital platforms and AI‐driven tools into their strategies and practices in a contemporary scenario characterized by the spread of disinformation and a growing distrust toward institutions. The article gathers insights from in‐depth interviews with leading public sector communicators working for European governments and EU institutions. Findings reveal that generative AI is seen as a transformative tool for governments and public institutions, with communicators emphasizing both benefits and risks, as well as the importance of adopting ethical practices and new responsibilities toward citizens, institutions, and mass media. From the interviews, generative AI tools emerged as game‐changers in message delivery and content production, demanding greater professionalism and new competencies and skills to integrate these technologies into public sector communication strategies and to counteract the threats posed by disinformation campaigns and platformization. The study provides valuable insights into the evolving role of generative AI in public‐sector communication, addressing the scarcity of research in this field. As the adoption of generative AI becomes inevitable, and policy frameworks like the EU AI Act develop, communicators must ensure transparency and trust to align public sector communication with democratic values and foster meaningful dialogue in new digital‐media arenas. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Social media have become essential channels for government communication with the public, creating opportunities for engagement with citizens, greater complexities in messaging and interactions, and distinct challenges in addressing government-citizen relations. This thematic issue brings together several articles that explore how governments, officials, and citizens interact on social media platforms. Collectively, the contributions illuminate how social media reshape communicative roles, redefine the boundaries between journalism, propaganda, and public service, and challenge democratic accountability. The studies employ a wide range of theoretical frameworks (from mediatization and affordance theory to principal-agent models and boundary work theory), distinct contexts (such as crisis communication, health communication, and military intervention), and several methodological approaches including text mining, machine learning, and mixed-methods approaches, among others.

PurposeDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector organisations produced thousands of social media messages weekly answering citizens questions and informing the public on safety related matters. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the pandemic shaped social media listening in Finland's public sector organisations and how these organisations aligned their listening and strategic communication to address emerging questions, news (real and fake) and rumours during the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on a theoretical background from strategic communication, organisational listening, digital marketing and public sector communication, qualitative interview data included communicators (N = 14) from all central Finnish public sector organisations in charge of COVID-19 communication. Findings were themed and analysed qualitatively to understand the level of alignment of strategic communication on social media.FindingsThe findings revealed that the pandemic had strained public sector organisations' communication capabilities, forcing them to align their processes and resources reactively to enable useful content and limit false/misleading content. The results confirmed that organisational listening remained somewhat unaligned. A dual role of public sector communication as speakers but increasingly as listeners was highlighted.Originality/valueThe study’s findings point to organisational listening on social media being a central requisite for public sector organisations overcoming a crisis.

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of citizens' communication with local governments in the southern states of Algeria. Adopting an exploratory qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 respondents from four southern states of Algeria. The thematic analysis revealed three key themes related to the nature of government-citizen communication in the southern states of Algeria: frequency, type, and purpose. The findings of this study showed that conventional \"face-to-face\" communication was the dominant type of citizen communication with local governments. This study also showed that communication between local governments and citizens in the southern states of Algeria is limited, and does not reflect active citizen engagement in public affairs. The findings also suggest that the use of ICT and social media is limited. The primary implication of this study is that the extent of engagement and participation of citizens in decision-making processes at the level of local governments in the southern states of Algeria falls below expectations, which could potentially hinder the development process in the country. The findings of this study contribute significantly to the understanding of government-citizen communication in the southern states of Algeria. This study offers important practical recommendations that can help foster effective communication between local governments and citizens, especially in marginalised communities in Algeria and other countries in the North African region. This study explores the nature of engagement and participation of citizens in the decision-making processes of local governments in the southern states of Algeria. The research highlights the current state of communication between local governments and citizens and explores the potentials of using technology to enhance communication. The study also suggests that communication between local governments and citizens is limited and does not indicate to an active citizen engagement in public affairs. The study proposes that the use of ICT and social media is limited in the southern states of Algeria. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the challenges faced in promoting active citizen engagement in public affairs in Algeria and other countries in the North African region.

Research has shown the potential of social media to disseminate important information as well as transform citizen engagement with government. However, implementation proves difficult, especially in public sector organizations. The success, impact and performance of these new forms of networked interactions are yet to be fully explored, especially at the local level. Many municipalities are experimenting with social media use, but few actively measure their performance on these platforms and their interactions with users. Different frameworks have been proposed to describe government communication types and activity on social media. They are addressed here through three phases that refer to forms of government‐citizen communication on social media. The original assessment method developed here contributes to the existing literature and provides guidance to practitioners. Empirically, our research relies on a database of cities that have between 100,000 and 500,000 inhabitants in European Union member states located in Central and Eastern Europe. It provides social media metrics for these cities (N=82 and compares various indicators on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This contributes to a better assessment ofhow social media platforms are used by local governments in the region.

While storytelling has become widely used in organizational communication, the mechanisms through which it shapes legitimacy remain insufficiently understood. This study addresses this gap by applying linguistic methods to analyze three stories from Swedish municipal communication campaigns during the Covid‑19 pandemic. The aim is to deepen understanding of the mechanisms of organizationally crafted storytelling and how they may shape discursive legitimation in local government. Drawing on narrative linguistics and multimodal discourse analysis, we examine how meaning is produced in these narratives. The analysis identifies three intertwined mechanisms structuring municipal storytelling: personification, values, and a shared narratorship. These mechanisms foster emotional engagement, construct images of responsible and caring municipalities, and invite readers into communities of action. At the same time, we show the complex – and at times paradoxical – nature of storytelling: while stories can clarify information and enhance accessibility, they may also obscure or blur understanding by allowing municipalities to promote themselves subtly, make strategic selections about which aspects to emphasize, and communicate organizational interests without clearly revealing themselves as the sender. The study contributes to a more critically informed perspective on discursive legitimation and underscores the need for reflexivity when public authorities use storytelling to reach out to citizens.

PurposeThe study aims at investigating the role of social media managers (SMMs) as trust mediators and access points in the context of local government. Little empirical work is devoted to this issue and the purpose of the paper is to provide a better understanding of the trust work routines.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents the results of a pilot study. Authors adopt a qualitative approach, using semi-structured in-depth interviews with a selected panel of PR professionals, managing social media channels on behalf of eleven Italian municipalities.FindingsSMMs are aware of having a key-role in nurturing trust, and trust is a design value of their work. This article shows many “signs of trust” that SMMs perceive as important to foster trust in the digital environment and in relations with citizens within the municipal context.Research limitations/implicationsThis pilot study draws upon a small sample and a single country-focus.Practical implicationsThe detected “signs of trust” can be useful for further investigations and provide SMMs with practical suggestions to integrate into their strategies.Originality/valueTwo main fields – the use of social media and the impact on public sector communication and the institution/citizen trust relationships – are connected to the specific role played by SMMs: an emerging figure as yet little analyzed by scholars.

This article aims to investigate the evolution of public sector communication before and after the Covid-19 crisis that has strongly impacted governmental institutions, public policy, contemporary society, and media ecologies. After a review of the main characteristics of public sector communication, the article proposes an interpretative and dynamic model to better understand the new challenges for public institutions. The model introduces ethics as the new, primary driver for public sector communication to surround all decisions, pointing out the need for transparent, authentic participation and dialogue to build trust. Focusing on two dimensions (trust/distrust, openness/closedness), the authors investigate the main trajectories of change for public sector communication, conceiving the three pillars of open government (transparency, participation and collaboration) as strategic values for improving the quality and efficacy of communication. In this time of uncertainty, the new trajectories of communication should fully embrace an ethical approach in order to become resilient, able to respond to citizens' needs and expectations, and to maintain responsible relationships with media, varied strategic publics, and a rapidly changing global community.

Both climate communication and place branding are familiar concepts, whose potentials have been recognized. Cities have engaged in communication and climate work for several years, yet studies linking municipal climate action and communication are scarce. We conducted targeted interviews and a broader survey of climate workers and communicators of forerunner municipalities in Finland and found gaps between climate action and communication. Synergies could be achieved if the two functioned in synchronicity rather than separate tasks, as words require actions, but full impacts of actions fall short without communication. Municipalities have progressed on both fronts but are hindered by lacking time and human resources. Results revealed several opportunities of climate communication in amplifying local climate action and strengthening municipal brand image, but many remain underexploited. Sufficient resources and stronger legitimacy are still needed for climate matters to be better integrated into everything the municipality does and communicates.