Increasing access to arts and cultural information related to DCA and Los Angeles
We work to increase access to arts and cultural information by sending out messages about events, workshops, and policy announcements related to our programming and services. Having multiple and easy access points to government information can help citizens identify opportunities to seek arts experiences, can help artists find support for arts-related endeavors, and can spark conversations with nonprofit and private-sector partners.
Subscribers of DCA and LA Islam Arts Facebook pages and Twitter accounts can receive updated information related to the department’s programming and more broadly about arts and culture in Los Angeles. Through these portals, resident users can receive event invites, news releases, and discussion topics.
Increasing Access Across Geography
Since LA is a vast city, digital access to information could mitigate the distance and traffic that citizens have to overcome to acquire information related to the department. The breadth metric can be considered in geographical terms. Specifically, we can look at where our social media followers are located throughout the greater Los Angeles area to see how digital access to information can better serve remote areas.
The distribution of our Twitter and Facebook followers in different areas of the LA metropolitan area indicates locales of new access points to our information.
DCA Facebook page has followers across the Los Angeles County.
Our followers on Twitter are distributed throughout the LA region: 
The Facebook page for the LA Islam Arts Initiative has followers throughout the LA region too.
Recommendation
Establish media relationships with social media hubs related to different areas and neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles. These information hubs may include both formal channels like the elected council district or neighborhood district offices as well as informal channels like blogs, individual event curators. To find out local information hubs, conduct an informal survey that asks followers where and how they obtain arts information.
Additionally, work with DCA programming staff to develop a strategy to distribute neighborhood or locale-specific information. Highlighting area-specific content to local audiences, either using a place-based hashtag or sending content through local partners, can encourage participation and visibility of DCA programming.
Increasing Access Across Language Differences
Los Angeles is a multicultural city. We aim to provide services for this multicultural city by engaging with our residents and visitors of various language backgrounds. With thoughtful content and form strategies, social media can be leveraged to reach individuals of various language groups.
The language group analysis of followers on social media can be an indicator of which populations are currently receiving DCA content. Language can be considered as a type of entry point into our content. Language barriers are, in essence, social barriers to our information. Our Facebook analysis shows that English speaking individuals make up the largest language group and the second largest language is Spanish.
A similar pattern is revealed related to the followers of the LA Islam Arts Initiative Facebook page.
Recommendation:
Develop a multilingual social media content strategy that engages with Spanish-speaking citizens, the second largest language group in Los Angeles, and other non-English speaking language groups. This strategy should provide guidance on how to reach non-English speakers based on programming and related stakeholders. This strategy should also deploy the use of related hashtags outside of the Anglophonic world.
Additionally, we can achieve a better understanding of our constituents’ language preferences through contextualizing location data with census information and coordinating with DCA staff who offers frontline services, especially those in the field offices.