Journalism, transparency and citizen participation: a methodological tool to evaluate information published on municipal websites

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the transparency of the websites of Spanish municipals of more than 20,000 inhabitants in 2015 with the aim of verifying whether these sites provide the information necessary so that citizens can be informed, can hold their governments to account and can participate in the democratic process. The methodology is based on 39 indicators grouped into questions about who the political representatives are, how they manage collective resources, how they inform about the management of these resources and what instruments they provide for participation. This study presents answers to the last two questions. The results reveal that city councils are not transparent and act mainly to promote the actions of the government when communicating with the public, that they provide few mechanisms for citizen participation, and that social networks are a unidirectional communication tool little used for accountability. The methodological tool presented here has been shown to be effective and to have had an impact on the municipals analysed here – which improved their information during the various phases of evaluation – and therefore may be of use when applied to other countries and other national and international governmental websites.

KEYWORDS:

• Transparency
• public administration
• local governments
• public communication
• web 2.0
• citizen participation

View correction statement:

Erratum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Núria Simelio, PhD is a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication and Journalism Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona-UAB). She is a member of the Laboratory for Journalism and Communication Science for the Diverse Citizenship at UAB. Currently, she is the leader of a R&D project where criteria, methodologies and key tools are defined in order to encourage participation of the plural citizenship on democratic control. Department of Journalism and Communication Studies, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain. Campus de la UAB, Edifici I, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), 08193 Spain. [email: [email protected]]

Xavier Ginesta, PhD is a full time lecturer in the Business and Communication Faculty of the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). He has been a research fellow in the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he was part of the staff of the Olympic Studies Centre during the time he wrote the doctoral thesis and he taught in the Journalism and Communications Department. He is a member of TRACTE research group. Communication Department, University of Vic, Vic, Spain. 7, Sagrada Família Str., 08500, Vic (Spain). [email: [email protected]]

Jordi de San Eugenio, PhD is a full time lecturer in the Business and Communication Faculty of the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). He has been a lecturer in the Girona University. He is a member of TRACTE research group, where he researches on place branding and public diplomacy. Communication Department, University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia, Vic, Spain. 7, Sagrada Família Str., 08500, Vic (Spain). [email: [email protected]]

Marta Corcoy is a journalist and a member of the Laboratory for Journalism and Communication Science for the Diverse Citizenship at UAB. She holds a Master of Journalism and a BA in Communication Studies from UAB. She has been coordinator and teacher of the Master in Local Journalism and Social Development (UAB). Laboratory for Journalism and Communication Science for the Diverse Citizenship, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain. Campus de la UAB, Edifici I, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), 08193 Spain. [email: [email protected]]

ORCID

Núria Simelio http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9220-5155

Xavier Ginesta http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2433-6209

Jordi de San Eugenio Vela http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3390-8819

Marta Corcoy http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9283-7884

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund [CSO2015-64568-R MINECO/FEDER].