Herramientas de comunicación para el tercer sector: el uso de las redes sociales por las ONGD catalanas

Abstract

Social media are already a communication tool used by any type of organization. This paper focuses on the communication of the Catalan non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs) in two of the most widely used social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter. This study addresses the discourse that these NGDOs generate around cooperation and development as well as their communicative practices to engage with citizens on these matters. The analysis shows that the discourse produced by the organizations on social media is consistent with the one issued through other channels. There are also some contradictions: although NGDOs see social media as a very important tool and appreciate that they can foster interaction with their audiences, they still use them under a traditional model of unidirectional communication. Moreover, the interaction with their audiences is very low and of poor quality. Hence, organizations fail to take advantage of the potentialities of social media to promote a more transformative communication.