CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS/ RESULTS

4.1 Introduction
This chapter sets out the findings of a qualitative study of the Ministry of Innovation and
Technology, to explore the use of social media as a public relations tool on enabling rapid
learning, adaptation and utilization of effective foreign technologies by the year 2022/23. Data
collection methods consisted of a face to face interviews and a review of social media-related
documents provided by participants. Purposive sampling was used to generate a sample of
Ministry of Innovation and Technology employees. The research participants consisted of a
nominated manager, PR practitioners, editor and IT experts. The chapter sets out the findings of
the research by key themes and sub-themes relevant to the purpose of the study and the research
questions. The themes and sub-themes were derived using an inductive process of thematic
analysis of the research data, and have been integrated with the results of the semi-structured
interviews.
The cumulative time of data recorded from interviews was around 320 minutes, with each
interview recording averaging around 45 minutes, and took around 60 to 80 minutes to
transcribe.
Although the sample size was relatively small, data saturation was still achieved.
Towards the end of the data collection process, the researcher realized data saturation was
achieved when no new information was being presented by the participants.
Moreover, the researcher noticed that the interviews started following a pattern. With that said,
four major themes emerged during the interviews conducted for this study.
The following section discusses these themes individually, from most general to most specific.
Each major theme covers a wide range of topics, which are arranged based on the frequency in
which they were mentioned during the interviews. Some of these topics include which social
media platforms the interviewees used mostly, the purposes or roles they preferred to use this
tool, the advantages and disadvantages of using social media, the effectiveness of using social
media as PR tool, and to what extent the interviewees used social media effectively.
 RQ1: Which social media platforms do public relations practitioners of Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology use the most?

4.2 Mostly used Social Media Platforms

The six participants were asked which social media platforms they use to communicate with
stakeholders and the public as well, and they were asked how often they use these platforms in
their role as a Ministry’s manager, PR practitioners and IT experts.
The social media platforms included blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram,
Pinterest, Google+, Text, and other platforms.
The participants provided a response for each social media platform. Most of the participants
said that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the three social media platforms they were most
comfortable using as a communication tool. Participant D.G and A.K said, “In today’s social
networking era we only use facebook and Instagram for networking, work, and career purposes.
Of course, we also use them for social purposes such as staying in touch with friends and
family.” They added, “Facebook is a quick and easy way for us to see what our friends are up to
and stay up to date. Participant D.A explained,” I use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for
mainly news and information and for social purposes such as sharing pictures and videos. He
added, “Twitter is great for quick clips of news and events. He stated, “When Twitter first came
out, I was all about it and used it to update my current status. But now I rarely use it unless I
want a quick update on news. It’s not convenient for much else.”
Participants expressed that they used social media “formally” when connecting with business
partners or when they want to catch up on news that interests them. One participant said that,
“Twitter is an awesome way to find out information in a short and quick way. I mean most of my
information I get about the world comes from Twitter.”He also suggested that he goes on
Twitter, “to find out information that is important to [participant] and to find out what’s going on
in the world”.
Participant Z.W stated, “I really don’t use twitter very much. I love using Instagram and
Facebook for both social and news purposes every day. Other than that, I use Facebook almost
every day. It’s a great way to interact with friends.” Participant H.K and T.W suggested, “Social
Media platforms are effective tools when we use them in a right way, for disseminating
information, receiving news and events, sharing pictures and videos, and interacting with
public.” However, they constantly use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for their
social and career purposes because of the simplicity access of the tools.
Therefore the study found that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were the platforms most used by
the participants in Ministry of Innovation and Technology, but it ultimately relied on their
purpose. In addition to this, the study distinguished that E-mail, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+,
and LinkedIn were viewed as the weakest platforms by participants because of the poor quality
of links and the inconvenience of using the platforms to find out more about the news.
RQ2: What are the roles of social media in Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and
Technology?

4.3 Roles of social media in relation to PR

A distinct theme that emerged from the interviews was regarding the roles of social media.
Social media can help to build up good PR as it allows the public to engage directly with the
organization which will build trust and better relationships among them. The increasing
popularity of Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others have
contributed to the rapid growth of consumer based medium.
Participant D.A. explained, “The emerging of social media in PR has caused press releases,
articles and events to become less effective than before because the audience and their preferred
channels of information have changed.”
Participant D.G. and A.K. perceived social media has helped them to enhance the source-reporter
relationship as they are able to interact with each other without any barriers. With the emerging
of social media, it has brought in the “old” and “new” rules of press release into PR practice
where the “new “press release will be delivered directly to target publics via the web.
Participant D.A. added, “Social media is an open environment. It allows the users to talk back if
they do or do not like what the organization is doing or saying.”
Participant H.K. believes that social media encourages two-way symmetrical communication
among its users. It has allowed PR practitioners to change their communication way which they
will personally reach as well as interact with the publics and stakeholders, and will end up for
mutual beneficial relationships. Thus, social media has become the audience “conversational
human voice” and this has offered new possibilities for the traditional PR concept of not fully
applying the real- time and conversational nature of social media.
Participant T.W. and Z.W. agreed social media has changed the setting of the PR in many ways,
and the most significant change is the shift from one-way PR communication to a two-way or
multi-way communication. The organization now is communicating via social media platforms
which allow them to have one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many communication, and this
has transformed the PR practice. This is also highlighted by participant D.A.
The research found that social media has shifted the previous recognized power of ‘word of
mouth’ to the power of ‘word of mouse’ which generally diverts the PR practitioners’ attention
towards its importance. However, in some instances, the unethical or inappropriate practice of
adopting social media sites has resulted to negative consequences that affected the public’s
image as well as the organization’s reputations. Therefore, the role of social media will always
be primarily the creation of communities and enabling of conversations among their members
(Gorry & Westbrook, 2009).

RQ3: To what extent is the Ministry of Innovation and Technology effective in using social
media in communicating with their internal and external publics?

How does the Ministry of Innovation and Technology evaluate its use of social media as a
Public Relations tool?

4.4 Effectiveness of social media as PR tool

To find out whether social media help improve PR, which is one of the concerns of the topic of
this study, the researcher asked a related question and the majority responded positively.
One of the objectives of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of social media usage as a
tool of PR practitioners. When asked, all participants agreed that social media are cost effective
tools, supporting claims by many researchers who argue that social media are the most cost-
effective communications tool including Haddud et al, (2016), Buettner (2015), Martin and
Bavel (2013).
Participant D.A. said the technology helps organizations in terms of cost-effectiveness. “Rather
than having two or three employees doing the same job, you can have one with the help of tools
and programmes which are available online.” He said we can certainly do with less and that
helps in cost-effectiveness.
Participant H.K. said publishing on social media platforms contributes to cost saving. “This will
not cost us anything since social media are free to use. So yes, it’s cost-effective”.
Participant H.K. added using less paper, the organization can save money.
“Today our printing machines are not used unless it is deemed necessary to print as everything
could be sent through email, through Telegram. This is really contributing to cost reduction or
optimization,” expressed participant D.A.
The participants in general indicated that the social media have affected their practices,
especially with regard to the dissemination of information to staff, stakeholders and the public.
The participants were upbeat that the social media hold great potential in improving the practices
of public relations in their organization. More than half said that the social media have made
public relations notice boards irrelevant. Participant D.A. and H.K. said they use the social media
(blog and Facebook) to share their press releases with the media. In the words of participant A;
“What I do is to simply share my press releases and the accompanying photographs in our
official blogspot and promote them with Facebook and Twitter instead of placing photographs on
notice boards, I share them on flicker or Instagram. It saves me the time of sending individual
mails to journalists.” Participant Z.W. said “Regarding notice boards, people don’t have time to
visit notice boards again, majority of our staffs’ source information through the social media that
is where we met them”. As a result, I can say: “Social media is an effective time management
medium of communication both for business as well as for academic purposes. One can post a
message or browse for any information at the click of a button. This is an added advantage in
comparison to print and other electronic media like television and radio, though one can get the
updates in television, yet social media channels provide impromptu information and connection
with the people that matters most.
On the contrary participant D.G. and A.K. complained that the social media have taken much of
their personal time that they can hardly differentiate their working hours from their personal
time. “With my Smartphone, there is no closing time for me” said respondent D.G. “Interacting
on facebook serves as my way of relaxing after the day’s work. Though it denies me my leisure
time” said respondent A.K. One participant believes that, “The effectiveness of a tool highly
depends on the growth of followers/likes/shares of specific sites. Of course, assessment
measurements are very difficult to create because social media effectiveness is hard to measure.”
The study found that what the participants said is in agreement with Rudloff and Frey (2010:92-
95) stated that a social media channel is a cost effective, simple and fast way to communicate
with customers and stakeholders.
Moreover, Langer (2014:12) revealed that social media could be effective when dealing with
internal and external stakeholder relations outside of work, through increased interaction of
communication between the organization and clients.
In a later online word-of-mouth survey by Sorensen (2010:71-72) in Denmark, it was suggested
that social network sites have changed the trend of communication from traditional (billboard
advertisements, newspapers and television advertising) to online advertising, using social
network sites, which could reach a larger audience faster, with enhanced communication
between individuals and other groups of people; the communication is bi-directional between
consumers and organizations who could engage with their audience faster through the channel.
The reviewed literature indicated that social media platforms were effective, with the adoption of
the platforms as a new communication strategy. This was done because of the two-way
communication pattern social media could offer that allowed for response from the stakeholders,
and increased interaction between internal and external stakeholders.
RQ4: To what extent the Ministry of Innovation and Technology uses the social media
effectively?

All the participants were unwilling to give answer for this particular question because of the
restrictions that exists in their organization. They use social media platforms moderately
effectively; however, restrictions exist. Some participants noticed that “In today’s social
networking era we are not allowed to use social media in a daily basis for networking, work, and
career purposes.”
One participant stated that. “In the government ministry, we have to be very careful with
confidentiality and regulatory issues in what we do.” Another participant expressed that, “The
government ministry is highly regulated on what you can post.” The other participant added that
in government ministry, “There are so many different compliance issues. People do not want all
that information public. There is a sense of security there that you do not want to see everything
out in the open.”
4.5 Advantages of social media
Another distinct theme that emerged from the interviews was regarding the advantages and dis-
advantages of social media.
The participants cited many advantages of social media including speed, transparency, time and
effort saving, knowledge and easy information accessibility.
The participants in general indicated that the social media have affected their practices,
especially with regard to the dissemination of information to staff, stakeholders and public.
The participants agreed that the social media have made public relations notice boards irrelevant.
Participant D.A. said with social media everything is fast today.
The other advantage, he believes is transparency. “Everyone today knows what is on around
them.”
Another participant agreed with D.A. on speed as one of the key benefits. “The top advantage I
see in social media is the vast spread and speed of communication since whatever happens can
be within minutes posted by so many people around the world and it has distance or limitations
or space. So, whatever happens here can be spread or whatever happens in America we can know
a few minutes after that so this can be an advantage if it is well used and can be a disadvantage if
it is not well used,” said A.K.
This is seconded by D.G who said it is becoming faster and everything is a click of a button
away. “It’s faster, it’s accessible and easier to handle,” remarked T.W. In terms of information
and knowledge, H.K. and Z.W said through social media users get some powerful information
about their roles and achievements that benefit other employees.
From this the study found that social media helps people communicate freely without
considering the geographical factor, and social media helps to facilitate people to stay connected
with others by just clicking a few buttons and the message will be sent in the shortest period of
time.
This is in agreement with Wright, Kahanfar, Harrington, and Kizer (2010:78), revealed that
social media minimizes and removes the time and location restriction.
Besides this, social media is to be used as a strategic communication to obtain the internal and
external information regarding the organization. “The communications world is dramatically
moving in a digital direction and those who know this transformation will communicate much
more effectively than those who do not.”
4.6 Social Media disadvantages
One of the participants did not see any negativity in the use of social media. “I don’t see any
disadvantages for social media,” said participant H.K.
However, others cited several negative effects. Participant D.A. spoke about the risk of a hit back
because of lack of control. “The only disadvantage is the control of the feedback coming from
this.” He added: “I don’t see other than that honestly.”
Participant T.W, Z.W, and A.K. agreed that misuse is a major disadvantage. Participant D.G.
agreed with this and said misuse happens when people give wrong information that go through
social media. This ethically shouldn’t happen.
Another participant agreed with D.G. “Social media can be used in a bad way,” remarked.
Participant D.A believes that rumors represented the main disadvantage. Sometimes there are
rumors which may affect not only the organization reputation but also the employee himself. The
other negative side is that fake accounts can be created as well, added participant D.A. So “If you
use it positively it will be positive and if you use it negatively it will be negative. It is a double-
edge sword.”
 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction
This chapter presents conclusion of the findings correlated to the topic: the use of social media
as a public relations tool, taking into account the goal and objectives of the study.
Limitations of the research are outlined and suggestions for additional research in this area are
made. The chapter ends with recommendations based on the findings as a contribution to solve
the problem investigated.
5.2 CONCLUSION
The purpose of this work was to explore the use of social media as a public relations tool at
Ethiopian ministry of Innovation and Technology. Qualitative research method was used. Six
participants were interviewed through personal contacts and telephone interview, and the
interviews were then transcribed. Finally, thematic analysis was used to analyze the findings.
The study concluded that social media is dramatically changing the way PR is practiced. Social
media has accelerated and intensified the way public relations practitioners communicate, relate,
their attitudes and tools/mcthods of practice.
Social media has given them dynamic new ways to communicate with many internal and
external audiences. This is associated with the theory of technological Determinism conducted
by Marshall McLuhan (2012), who states that we are living in a new age of technology that has
never been experienced before.
Social media has made the practice more challenging for PR professionals because it requires a
diverse and ever-expanding collection of skills and proficiency especially with the rise of new
social media technologies every day. There is increased knowledge that social media has forced
PR professionals to have. Practitioners mentioned being unable to keep up with the changing
technologies as one of the major challenges.
The study discovered that notice boards that were one of the traditional channels of
disseminating information to the internal publics of the MCIT have been replaced with
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram which are the preferred channels for the staff.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology PR manager no longer waits for the
traditional media to publish his press releases; he provides updates on activities using Blogs,
Facebook and Twitter platforms.
The social media has tremendously enhanced the performance of PR in the organization. It
offers a low-cost relationship building; it has changed the way an organization, mainly a PR
organization communicates with its target audience.
Furthermore, the study discovered that the social media has changed the setting of the PR from
one-way communication to a two-way or multi-way communication. Now the organization is
communicating via social media. However, social media and traditional media are
interdependent on each other rather than to compete.
This is according to Wright and Hinson (2008a, 2009b) have found that most public relations
professionals believe that the use of social media has had a positive impact on public relations.
They have also found that about 85 percent of public relations professionals believe that these
new tools and traditional media complement each other rather than compete (Wright & Hinson,
2009b).
5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The study has several limitations that should be taken into account when analyzing the findings.
Such as:
 The sample selected for this research was only one government ministry, which may have
slanted its findings.
 This study investigated only the use of social media as public relations tool. Therefore,
findings cannot be generalized to the negative impacts of social media sites not
mentioned in this study.
 This research selected small number of interview participants. Therefore, the small
sample size made the researcher unable to make reasonable generalization to the study.
 The study was conducted using only qualitative research method with the use of open-
ended questions.
 This study identified that there is still no clear research on defining or measuring social
media success in the government ministry.
 This study also identified that there was limited number of literature review related to the
study topic.
 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES /RECOMMENDATIONS

The aforementioned limitations of this study also present an opportunity for further research, as
recommended below.
 This study focused only on government ministry, specifically Innovation and Technology
Ministry in Ethiopia. Further research can focus on other ministries not included in this
study.
 Further research should be done to fully understand the positive and negative impact of
using social media platforms as a PR tool in the government agencies/ministries.
 Further research should employ a bigger sample size to have a more generalizable
outcome.
 A comparative study could be conducted to compare the use of social media platform as a
PR tool and the traditional media approach in government ministries in Ethiopia.
 A mixed methodology paradigm could be employed for future research in order to gain
deeper insight than was possible in this study.
 The participants should research what platforms their target audience use. They only used
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It would be critical to research other platforms that
might allow them to better reach their audience.
 There is still no clear research on defining or measuring social media success in the
government ministry. Therefore, to determine their effectiveness future research is
needed.
 Since social media platforms are dynamic and powerful communication tools, the
government ministry must have the ‘social media implementation guide’ in order to
evaluate effectiveness and make improvements.