Dissertation

Cultivating the art of hearing and being heard: how regulators strategically use public communication in regulatory governance

How do public organizations use strategic regulatory communication in regulatory governance?

Author: M. Müller
Date: 23 March 2023
Links: Full text in Scholarly Publications Leiden University

Regulators interact with a wide variety of stakeholders, ranging from politicians, interest groups, to citizens. Communicating with these stakeholders is crucial for regulators: Amongst others, it provides them with unique information to make better regulatory decisions, it can foster support for their regulatory strategies, and it can strengthen their organizations’ regulatory mandates. However, regulatory communication is no easy feat. Stakeholders have varying preferences and might react adversely towards a regulator’s public message – or stakeholders might not even be listening at all. This dissertation discovers how EU regulators strategically use communication to advance their organizations’ agenda. Through the blended use of machine learning and quantitative text analysis, it sheds light on how regulators interact with the news media, how various regulatory organizations secure public attention, and how they ultimately seek to protect their organizations’ public reputations. The findings aim to improve our understanding of “what makes regulators tick” and to provide evidence to consider public communication as an integral part of regulatory governance.