Affiliations: [a] Master of Public Relations, Lecturer of communication
management in public sector organizations, PhD student in media and
communications, University of Tartu, Estonia
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Kristina Reinsalu, Department of
Journalism and Communications, University of Tartu, Ulikooli 18, 50090 Tartu,
Estonia. Tel.: +372 7375 188; +372 5281391 (mobile phone); Fax: +372 7376 355;
E-mail: kristina.reinsalu@ut.ee
Abstract: This paper examines citizens' interaction with local government. The
main concern of the paper is how the citizens of Estonia use the Internet for
local services. It presents an empirical study supported by direct observation
of websites with an accompanying description of e- and m-services being
implemented or planned, and provides data from a survey conducted among
citizens of a major city. My findings show that the indicators of access to the
Internet, use of the Internet and mobile phones are very high in all age
groups. Also, the evaluation given by the people to the website of the city
council is high in different categories. The e- and m-services the city
government has implemented or is planning to implement are innovative. However,
the citizens' readiness to use them is low. If there is any interest, it is
mainly limited to every-day-life services like m-parking etc. Forums or other
services implemented to provoke citizens' involvement are not attractive.
Finally, my paper discusses the impact of these results, referring to the
theoretical framework, and states that the key factor for interactive
communication is motivation. Should interactive communication – even if only
"consumerism" of entertainment services – become a routine, it might provide
a solution to problems stemming from the perceived disconnection of political
and administrative institutions from citizens' everyday concerns.
Keywords: Local government, Internet, local government's internet based services, mobile phone based services, users of different services, customer-oriented services, participant-oriented services, commercial democracy
