Educommunication and Archaeological Heritage in Italy and Spain: An Analysis of Institutions’ Use of Twitter, Sustainability, and Citizen Participation

Silvia García-Ceballos, Pilar Rivero, Sebastián Molina-Puche and Iñaki Navarro-Neri
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Silvia García-Ceballos: Department of Specific Didactics, Faculty of Education, University of Zaragoza, Calle de Pedro, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Pilar Rivero: Department of Specific Didactics, Faculty of Education, University of Zaragoza, Calle de Pedro, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Sebastián Molina-Puche: Department of Didactics of Social Sciences Faculty of Education, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Iñaki Navarro-Neri: Department of Specific Didactics, Faculty of Education, University of Zaragoza, Calle de Pedro, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-25

Abstract: Improving heritage educommunication on the web 2.0 is key to reaching certain sustainable development goals focused on educational quality and citizen participation. Although numerous partial studies have already been conducted, to date neither assessment tools nor detailed studies are available regarding the quality of educommunicative initiatives. Spain and Italy’s archaeological heritage museums have a consolidated track record on Twitter, which has been bolstered by museum closures due to COVID-19 and has resulted in a significant change to their educommunicative policies. The present article aims to analyze educommunicative actions undertaken on Twitter at Italian archaeological museums, compare their strategies with a previous study on Spanish institutions, and analyze to what degree the sustainability of heritage, citizen participation, learning opportunities, and universal access are being promoted. This mixed method analysis was carried out through the implementation of a web 2.0 heritage educommunication analysis tool focused on three key factors: educational procedure, R-elational interactions, and the prevailing learning paradigm, as well as a content analysis of the variables that comprise them. The key findings suggest that neither country is close to achieving a quality educommunicative strategy. Italian archaeological heritage institutions use Twitter simply as an advertising platform. Despite being a social media platform, participative initiatives are scarcely promoted, although heritage sustainability is promoted through raising awareness of conservation and appreciation. Spanish institutions, however, demonstrated the opposite pattern of use.

Keywords: archaeological museums; COVID-19; twitter; heritage education; educommunication; sustainability; citizen participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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