Relevance of E-Participation in the state health campaign in Spain: #EstoNoEsUnJuego / #ThisIsNotAGame

Sonia Santoveña-Casal and Ma Dolores Fernández Pérez

Technology in Society, 2022, vol. 68, issue C

Abstract: Confronting the COVID-19 health emergency has forced public administrations in Spain to work with various networks as a means of promoting their campaigns to citizens. This paper aims to analyse digital citizens’ e-participation by focusing on the state health campaign #EstoNoEsUnJuego - #ThisIsNotAGame. This campaign was launched by the Spanish Ministry of Health in September 2020 via Twitter with the objective of reinforcing protection measures against the virus. A sample consisting of 19,576 tweets, sent from September 2020 to February 2021, was investigated and the results have indicated that, of 9133 users, 64.8% of citizens collaborated in the dissemination of tweets. It was observed that most messages supported the campaign by disseminating information on measures, data and news. Only 0.1% of the messages were aggressive. The conclusion is that, despite not having created a true form of communication between public institutions and citizens, e-participation has generated a functional connection between them. Citizens have acquired a responsible and participatory digital role which, although failing to show personal involvement in their comments, has been the main driving force behind the success of this campaign.

Keywords: E-participation; Digital citizenship; Twitter; COVID-19; Communication; Social interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:68:y:2022:i:c:s0160791x22000185

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101877

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