Council press offices as sources of political information

This study uses a qualitative approach to examine what political and technical leaders of municipalities understand transparency and public information to mean, and what role they believe the different subjects involved (government, opposition, and the public) should have. The websites of 605 Spanis...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rodríguez Breijo, Vanessa|||0000-0002-9749-8444, Simelio i Solà, Núria|||0000-0002-9220-5155, Molina Rodríguez-Navas, Pedro|||0000-0002-1586-881X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:236186
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/236186
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.3390/fi13020034
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Public communication
Internet
Transparency
Press offices
Councils
Participation
Descripción
Sumario:This study uses a qualitative approach to examine what political and technical leaders of municipalities understand transparency and public information to mean, and what role they believe the different subjects involved (government, opposition, and the public) should have. The websites of 605 Spanish councils with more than 100,000 inhabitants were analysed and three focus groups were held with political and technical leaders from a selection of sample councils. The results show that the technical and political leaders of the councils do not have a clear awareness of their function of management accountability or of the need to apply journalistic criteria to the information they publish, defending with nuances the use of propaganda criteria to focus on the actions of the local government, its information, the lack of space dedicated to public debate and the opposition's actions. In relation to accountability and citizen participation, they have a negative view of citizens, who they describe as being disengaged. However, they emphasize that internally it is essential to continue improving in terms of the culture of transparency and the public information they provide citizens.