Front-line Professionals in the Wake of Public Scrutiny

In this research, I examine how front-line professionals respond to public scrutiny via social media, and with what consequences for professional accountability? Based on an ethnography of 911 emergency management, I find that public scrutiny of 911 call-takers – the front-line professionals in this setting – via social media can end up obscuring, as opposed to improving, professional accountability. I elaborate on the processes that produce these paradoxical outcomes and discuss their theoretical implications.