Examining Social Media Use in Public Relations Practice in Ghana Police Service

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine social media use in public relations practice in Ghana Police Service. To achieve this, its objectives were; to analyze the types of social media platforms used by the public relations department at the Ghana Police Service; to examine whether social media use has enhanced the achievement of public relations objectives in terms of information passed at the Ghana Police Service; to investigate factors for preference of social media tools employed by the public relations department at the Ghana Police Service. This researched was anchored by one theory- The Uses and Gratification theory- which looked into reasons why certain users of the media at the Ghana Police Service pick one type of communication channel over others can obviously express the reasons they favor a channel to different channels. The study adopted the quantitative approach because it inspects many variables and factors and is unique gathering information method for an enormous populace as the study aimed at officers at the Ghana Police Service. The study looked into existing literature done on the frame of ‘Police and Social Media’ in the western context and narrowed it down to the Ghanaian setting. Data collection and presentation was not feasible because it adopted a long-essay approach because of the COVID-19 which makes it difficult to collect data. The study concluded that, Ghana Police Service ought to consider building up a fit social media strategy. This would enable its officials to be readily available to the public.