Critical Making Workshops for Enhancing Public‐Sector Social Media Communication
A Study of the Swedish Police Authority
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21747488 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jens Alvén Sjöberg (0000-0002-2033-2550, Malmö University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-19 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Strategic Communication (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1553-118X • E-ISSN: 1553-1198 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1553118x.2026.2677919 |
| OpenAlex | W7167591733 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 39 |
This study introduces critical making workshops as a participatory methodology, commonly used in design and sociotechnical research but rarely applied in strategic communication. It examines how employees of the Swedish Police Authority understand and strengthen organizational social media communication related to complex societal matters. Four workshops, each involving three to four employees, explored how participants collaboratively engaged in discussion, hands‐on activities, and reflection to assess and improve the police’s social media communication aimed at fostering a sense of public safety. The findings demonstrate the value of critical making as an exploratory, bottom‐up method that foregrounds grassroots perspectives. Organized as a five‐step process – pre‐selected scenarios, iterative and exploratory making, reflection, the researcher’s role, and analysis of empirical outcomes – the workshops offered a flexible environment where participants connected prior experience with new insights and reflected on communication challenges. Unlike traditional qualitative or quantitative methods, critical making combines practical explorations with interactive and reflexive processes, encouraging participants to examine complex issues without predefined judgments of “right” or “wrong.” Consequently, this study demonstrates the value of critical making workshops for advancing participatory, exploratory, hands‐on, and reflective practices within strategic communication research
Citizen journalism · Critical reflection · Exploratory research · Grassroots · Qualitative research · Reflexivity · Social media · Sociotechnical system · Management and Organizational Studies · Media Studies and Communication · Public Relations and Crisis Communication
Communicating a sense of safety
Voicing the organization on social media
Making sense of internal social media and participatory communication
Public Relations
Theory, Development, and Strategy in Transmedia Storytelling
Action research in business and management
Developing a Communicative Logic –The Key to Communication Professionalism
The Unclear Role of Strategic Communicators
Diverging Principles for Strategic Communication in Government Agencies
Expanding the Scope of Strategic Communication
Strategic Communication
The visual politics of public police Instagram use in Canada
Peering into Transparency
Maintaining police-citizen relations on social media during the Covid-19 pandemic
Police-community engagement and the affordances and constraints of social media
Leveraging social media to achieve a community policing agenda
Critical Making as Materializing the Politics of Design
Critical Making
Den svenska tryggheten
Social Media and Value Conflicts
Share a little of that human touch
What is good action research
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |