Abstract
This study examines how government responses to citizen inquiries on governmental social media enhance policy communication campaigns for observers. Drawing upon theories of masspersonal communication and artificial intelligence (AI)-mediated communication, it investigates the effects of replying agents, inquiry tones, and institutional trust on observers’ perceptions of the campaigner, campaign message, and communicated policy. A pre-registered four (replying agents: AI-powered bot editor, human editor, AI–human tandem editor, and control) × two (inquiry tones: friendly vs. frustrated) between-subjects online survey experiment was conducted in Hong Kong (N = 1458), focusing on a recent waterpipe smoking control policy. Results revealed that audiences viewed the institution more favorably when friendly inquiries were addressed. AI–human collaborative responses enhanced policy communication effectiveness. Institutional trust moderated the impact of both inquiry tones and replying agents. These findings emphasize that beyond technological factors, nurturing citizens’ confidence in government institutions is crucial for effective AI-mediated government–citizen communication and its role in policy communication.
© 2025 The Author(s).
© 2025 The Author(s).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e70000 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Policy and Internet |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Online published | 20 Mar 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2025 |
Funding
This project is supported by the Interdisciplinary Research Clusters Matching Scheme (project number: RC-IRCMS/19-20/D05) by the Hong Kong Baptist University granted to the first author.
Research Keywords
- AI‐mediated communication
- computer‐mediated communication
- government–citizen interaction
- public health policy
- social bots
Publisher's Copyright Statement
- This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
