Citizen engagement and the Covid-19 mask communication

This paper looks at the changing communication environment of public sector organizations and examines how the traditional understanding of citizen engagement is becoming outdated. Building on literature on customer engagement from marketing and civic engagement from the field of political science, this article establishes the process of citizen engagement in the public sector. Our propositions for future citizen engagement include the following: (i) a willingness and empowerment to engage from both sides, (ii) the potential for either positive or negative manifestations, (iii) realistic expectations for outcomes, (iv) an understanding of its processform and (v) having the aim of improving society. We tested these propositions in the context of young opinion leaders in Finland in the Covid19 related communication aiming to engage citizens to wear protective face masks.

Our data confirmed the five propositions, and two new ones also emerged from the data: citizen engagement (vi) occurs in the global information environment and (vii) is enforced by others in society. [Publisher's text].