The Digital Transformations of Public Communication: Breakdown, Continuity or Improvement of the Communication Potential of Cameroonian Administrations
Public communication has undergone major
transformations since the early stages of
the digitalisation of services. Indeed, public communication has been
practically shaken up and transformed, while it thought itself to be safe from
any risk of competition. For a long time, it has remained confined to classic
patterns in its practice. In a context of digitalisation, can outdated methods
of public communication continue to be
applied in an environment that has become digital? Such is the question
to which we shall endeavour to answer by analysing the digital transformation
of public communication in Cameroonian institutions, from the observation and
then the analysis of the practice of public communication in administrations.
The aim of this research is to show how the development of digital means of
communication contributes to bringing institutions closer to citizens. Faced
with the hypothesis according to which the institutions studied have been
ambushed by this digital turn, we argue that though it is possible to detect a
desire to catch up, the major difficulties lie in the professionalization of
practices and the institutional adequacy between the goals of public
communication and the decongestion of functions. To verify this hypothesis, we
used qualitative techniques to study the use of digital tools in the
communication of several Cameroonian public administrations. In the end, we
found that the digital transformation appears to enhance the potential of communication,
which nevertheless requires rigour, professionalism and adaptation to the web
environment in its practice.
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