Reflections on the impact of change.

I have chosen to discuss the ways in which change has impacted the Australian government. For the Australian Government social media has been a significant benefit. 2019/2020 in particular, have proved this in the form of crisis communication with the Australian prolonged bushfire disaster and even more recent Covid-19.

With most on the edge and glued to their screens, things could be magnified by the wrong message. The public is looking not only for guidance from the government, but also as an example on how to cope. Ii is paramount that messages are given in a timely, concise and professional manner. The ability to do this has been greatly increased by the technologies of web 2.0 (Tran & Bar-Tur, 2019).

Social media has altered how lawmakers communicate with their voters, and through a hundred different resources, news is now presented in real time. Anyone with access to the internet can now read about what is going on, you watch the newest campaign post from their local representative in a few moments (Techspirited, 2007).

A Pew research survey conducted in 2018 says that 68% of people use Facebook to get the news (Matsa & Shearer, 2018).

Government departments do the majority of their business digitally these days with digital ids, online forms/payments and meeting people via their favourite platforms, such as in person, by phone, by mobile device (more than 50 percent of government website traffic now comes from mobile devices), smart speakers, chatbots or virtual reality, can fulfil citizens’ objectives and satisfy program results (Australian Public Service Commission, 2018).

By automating business processes, governments and the private sector are saving time and money. Technological changes have opened the door through streamlined systems to even operational productivity and improved customer service to the public. The solid business case for this approach is pushing the necessary improvements to maximize the value of ICT’s full potential (Moore, 2019).

References

Australian Public Service Commission. (2018, March 28). Australian Government use of information and communication technology. Australian Public Service Commission. https://www.apsc.gov.au/australian-government-use-information-and-communication-technology

Matsa, K. E., & Shearer, E. (2018, September 10). News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2018. Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project; Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project. https://www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/

Moore, S. (2019, October 7). Smarter With Gartner. Gartner.com. https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/technology-trends-future-government/

Techspirited. (2007, August 13). The Impact of Web 2.0 Technology. Tech Spirited. https://techspirited.com/five-things-web-2-0-has-changed-in-five-years

Tran, T., & Bar-Tur, Y. (2019, May 15). Social Media in Government: Benefits, Challenges, and How it’s Used. Hootsuite Social Media Management. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-government/

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