Events vs Ethics: How Wisconsin Park and Recreation Agencies Use Their Social Media Platforms

Abstract

Social media has been a rapidly growing way for organizations to communicate with the public. This study investigates how forty-seven Wisconsin park and recreation agencies are using their social media to communicate. A secondary focus is on how social media encourages responsible recreation by examining the prevalence of posts on safety and outdoor ethics. Through a systematic internet search, we identified which social media platforms are being used by agencies. Given the prevalence of Facebook, we analyzed the Facebook content of each agency from June 1st to June 31st, 2025, categorizing the posts into five distinct groups based on each post’s content. Categories include: Ethics, Events, Information, and Other. Results indicate that agencies most often use Facebook to communicate events and general information, while under 2% of the total posts discuss ethics or other safety messages. Overall, the study looked at over 1,800 posts with 35 of them falling into the safety and ethics category. These posts will be analyzed further to look at individual post engagement. Engagement includes likes, comments, and shares given to the post. This information helps agencies understand how other agencies promote ethics in effectively sharing information through social media.