How do government agencies review and approve text content for publication on their Web sites? A framework to compare Web content management practices

Abstract

This article describes a multicase field study of four public-facing Midwestern state agencies and how they organized the work of reviewing and approving textual content for publication on Internet Web sites. Drawing on field data and concepts from institutional theory, contingency theory, and organizational design, the paper generates a framework to document systematically the processes and practices involved in the review and approval of textual Web content. The framework is then used to compare textual content management practices across the four case sites and to begin to investigate the effects of variation in content management practices on characteristics of the available textual content. The article suggests how the framework could be used in future research to investigate how content practices affect content characteristics such as quality, quantity, and cost and to investigate how and why content management practices change over time.