Abstract

In this report, we inquire the role of new social media as a communication tool of EU Cohesion Policy. Practitioners in the feld of public policy communication in general and Cohesion Policy in particular tend to agree on the need to increase the prominence and effectiveness of new media as key channels of strategic communication of both central institutions and national/local managing authorities. Social media in particular tends to be associated with the possibility of reaching the youngest population (see for example the results of our interviews and survey in PERCEIVE Deliverables 3.1 and 3.2). However, their potential impact on communication strategies goes much beyond this point and encompasses changes in the segmentation of target audiences (i.e. communities rather than the general public) on the one hand, and in the way Cohesion Policy ‘stories’ are told on the other hand (i.e. interactivity with audiences). In spite of the potential impact of new and especially social media on strategic policy communication, based on our experience in the feld as well as on a review of both academic and practice-oriented literature, we argue that much is still to be learnt about how to realise this potential. This is especially true given the scarce attention of academic research to the specifcities of Cohesion Policy, among other public policies. Therefore, in order to extend current knowledge on the communication issues highlighted above, we present the results of empirical analysis we have performed with the aim of describing the new (social) media presence of different key actors in the institutional feld of EU Cohesion Policy communication in the current report.