E-participação nas fundações de amparo à pesquisa: percepção dos gestores sobre o papel das mídias sociais na participação dos cidadãos em ações de CT&I

Abstract

The use of social media has advanced across all social strata affecting citizen participation in political discussions and decisions. This advance stimulated the increase of research aiming to understand the impact of social media on e-participation. The approximation of the citizens to politics is a challenge for scientific and governmental institutions within the scope of Science, Technology, and Innovation (ST&I) policies and actions. The State Research Support Foundations (RSFs) have shown an interest in promoting the approach between science and citizens to legitimize and expand investments in scientific activities. In this context, social media can contribute to the interaction between citizens, researchers, and ST&I governmental institutions. This study aims to identify e-participation elements focusing on social media that promote citizen participation in ST&I actions in the context of the Research Support Foundations. To achieve this objective, we conducted a systematic review of the literature, demonstrating the panorama of e-participation publications focusing on social media. In this systematic review, we classified and analyzed 110 articles published from 2009 to 2016 and indexed in the Web of Science, IEEE or ScienceDirect databases. This theoretical panorama was used to substantiate the research with a qualitative approach to the Research Support Foundations. Nine organizations, with at least one Foundation from each region of Brazil, participated in the research. The data was collected through interviews conducted with the professionals responsible for the communication departments of the organizations. The results of the systematic review of literature show a predominance in the use of social media for a one-way government-citizen communication. At a smaller scale, the articles indicated advances made by governments in the electronic monitoring of social media to understand the interest of citizens and the acceptability of public policies. In the context of the Research Support Foundations, the investigated organizations disseminated information as a predominant form of e-participation in social media. This form of e-participation is consistent with the predominance of social media use for a one-way government-citizen communication identified in the systematic review. On the other hand, in addition to the predominance in disseminating information, social media are used to clarify doubts through the interaction between the RSFs and the citizens. We identified two cases of more effective participation with the influence of citizens in the decisions of the investigated organizations. In both cases, the social media, especially Facebook, have increased citizen participation. The ability to increase the interactions between researchers, citizens, and the government using a more informal and accessible language was the main contribution of social media to the participatory process in ST&I actions in the context of the RSFs. For future research, we highlight the need for understanding the potential that are researchers and students as facilitators in the citizen participatory process in ST&I actions and policies with the support of social media.