This presentation is being prepared by reviewing the research article named "The Use of Social Media in Impact Assessment: Experience Among National Infrastructure Developers in Denmark".

1. THE USE OF SOCIAL
MEDIA IN IMPACT
ASSESSMENT:
Experiences Among National
Infrastructure Developers In Denmark
Presenter: Muhammad Ahsan
Research Associate Urban Planning – The Urban Unit
MSc City and Regional Planning, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore
Authors: Sara Bjørn Aaen, Ivar Lyhne & Helle Nielsen

2. CENTRAL AGENDA
 Prominent role of Social Media in interacting impact
assessments with society
 Social Media as source of interaction between actors in
impact assessment processes
 How social media impinge on participatory practices
and public participation processes
 Experiences among national developers working in
road, rail, electricity, gas, and metro infrastructures in
Denmark

3. INTRODUCTION
 Direct concern for actors involved in decision-making
 Social media have a direct influence on citizens’ participation in civic and political
life
 Social media is also influencing the demographics of public participation by attracting
more young people, who can otherwise be difficult to engage
 Social media act during impact assessment and planning processes as a means of
informing and sharing information between actors

4. FOCUS
 The analysis focuses on three aspects:
1) How the different social media platforms are used by developers and to what
purpose,
2) The nature of interactions with the public through social media
3) Challenges and future potentials for using social media in the infrastructure
planning.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA IN IA AND PLANNING
 Access to project documentation and information
 As a tool for one-way communication rather than dialogue
 Other uses relates to data collection, communication of updates, gathering of ideas, and
facilitation of dialogue between stakeholders
‘Innovative approach to gathering ideas and views’
Illsley et al. (2014)
‘Likes and don’t likes’
Fredericks and Foth (2013)
 Wind turbine projects in Denmark

6. OBSTACLES
 Use of social media is embedded in the political sphere
 Lack of ICT skills among the public
 Complicated process to assess the validity and reliability of information
‘Intrinsically Incompatible’
Sinclair et al. (2017)

7. CURRENT PRACTICES
 Different strategies among the developers regarding the use of social media

8. CURRENT PRACTICES

9. NATURE OF INTERACTIONS
 Interaction primarily takes place on Facebook and Twitter
 limited critique on Twitter compared to the reactions on Facebook
 Facebook is by far the platform where the most interaction between developers and
citizens takes place

10. NATURE OF INTERACTIONS
Dialogue-oriented platforms are Facebook and Twitter
Twitter is most frequently used in the operational phase as a one-way communication
LinkedIn is primarily used for recruitment purposes
YouTube is used for sharing the project proposals in the form of videos
All five social media platforms are primarily used from the hearing phase and onwards in
the planning process.

11. BARRIERS
 Limited interaction during planning phase of infrastructure projects
 Loss of control
 Lack of resources and competences
 Mismatch between the target group of social media and the target group of the planning
 Problems regarding privacy
 Organizational culture
 Lack of strategy and working routines
 Difficulty in building relationships between the developers and the citizens
 Too much space to negative comments

12. FUTURE PRACTICES
 Developing project-based websites
 Development of a proper strategy and work routines
 ICT skills enhancement

13. CONCLUSION
 Current use in public participatory practices is limited to
branding and on-way communication
 Gives rise to a variety of concerns among developers that are
related to especially organizational cultures, perception of
the target groups, and prioritization of resources.
Participatory practices that have the purpose of sharing
decision-making power or distributing power to the public are
absent.
 Developers need to be better understood
before suggesting ways to handle the barriers

14. Can we use Social
Media for Impact
Assessment in Our
Local Scenarios?

15. Thank You
For Further Query, Please Contact!
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