Science, Technology and Government (Essay Sample)

Science, Technology and Government
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Science, Technology and Government
The use of social media and the Internet to provide transparency in services
Among the major challenges facing most governments the world over are the issues of transparency, accountability, openness and communication. Most governments are protected the by power that they possess and practice over the citizens of a nation, and for that reason, the actions and decisions of senior leaders and top management in the government go unquestioned. However, true democracy calls for governments to be open, truthful, accountable and above all transparent with their people. The use of social media in various sectors of the world include government and politics has brought a ray of hope in transparency and accountability in various governments, including the U.S. government. This paper will discuss how the social media has promoted, and can promote transparency in the government and the services provided by the public sector. The paper will also explore the issues related to transparency and the use of social media in promoting the impacts of ICT and e-government in order to achieve transparency in the government CITATION Ber12 \l 1033 (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes)
Transparency is one of the functions of the government and it serves different purposes top of which is democracy by ensuring participation of the people, informed decision making, prevention of corruption, trust in the government, provision of information to the public, accuracy of government information, and provision of information to the media or journalists and companies, among other functions. In the long run, countries that embrace transparency perform better than other governments because of the tendency to share information with the public thus nothing comes as a surprise to the people. A number of nations have adopted information and communication technologies (ICT) as a means to embrace government transparency, and reduce cases of corruption. As a matter of fact, the most emphasis in the use of ICT by government is on reducing if not completely clearing cases of corruption in government agencies and offices. The use of the social media lies in the central of the promotion of all these initiatives to improve transparency and promote anti-corruption initiatives.
Social media is a form of media created for social interaction and centered around the same too. It is usually associated with the conglomeration of web-based services and technologies including media-sharing services, blogs, social networking service, collaborative editing tools and wikis, among others. Social media is different from traditional media as it relies on the content generated by users and refers to any content that is created by the users or the public CITATION Yas14 \l 1033 (Hussain). The traditional forms of media on the other hand rely on professional sources or the content generated by government employees, in this case. Thus, social media allows members of the public a chance and a say in what goes on in the government. Unlike traditional media which is a one-way form of communication, social media allows many-to-many interaction and ensures that all members of public interested in a certain issue pertaining to the government get to participate in analyzing data and contributing suggestions or airing their views on the same. In addition, the many-to-many form of interaction permitted by social media in the government also allows members of the public to interact with each other, thus fostering a greater level of participation and sharing of information as compared to traditional media.
Corruption is one of the greatest hindrances to both social and economic development of a nation. This is majorly because the political elite manages to take control of resources, as well as, over distribution and patronage of the same resources. This is called ‘resource curse’ and is a major contributor to the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, unfair distribution of resources where those who are of a high class get better resources inform of products and services from the government as compared to those in the lower classes. Resource curse is also an indication of larger cultural and political issues in a nation and these issues have the capacity to influence the measures taken by the government against corruption. Thus, the internet and ICT work to a great extent to help reduce the cost of collection and access to government information. This makes it possible for members of the public to access the necessary government information that they need to follow up the processes and operations of the government especially with regard to allocation of resources CITATION Ber10 \l 1033 (Bertot, Jaeger and Munson).
In addition, the capacities provided to members of the public via social media and the use of ICT have also promoted the trends towards the digitization of most public operations and processes through e-government. The introduction of e-government was mainly to promote transparency, anti-corruption and accountability. Despite the fact that not all avenues are utilized by government agencies in e-government, ICT offers a chance for the government to integrate citizen participation and engagement directly into government initiatives. This is mainly through the enactment of transparency laws that are tied directly with the implementation of ICT-based initiatives through e-government. This way, it is possible for the government to use ICTs and social media to promote good governance through the involvement of its people. This can make it possible for the government to strengthen reform-oriented initiatives to reduce the potential for corruption and enhance relationships between members of the public and government employees.
In addition, the government can also use the social media to allow the citizens to keep track of the activities going on in the government, as well as, monitor and control the behavior of government employees. The government is capable of doing this by increasing the access to information and making sure that all rules are not only transparent, but also being applied to promote the abilities of the government to keep track of actions and decisions taken by its employeesCITATION Man15 \l 1033 (Management Association, Information Resources). A wide spread application of different types of social media approaches by the government were emphasized in a White House report of 2009 titled; ‘Open Government: A Progress Report to the America People’. This report provided a list of the various uses of the social media approaches in government operations with the main intention of promoting transparency across the different government agencies. In addition, the report also promised to expand the government efforts through the adoption of new initiatives for transparency through the adoption of more social media initiatives. This was to include at least one new program for each cabinet-level agency.
Blogs are also a form of social media that allow the dispatching of content in a structure format through a sequence postings focusing on one main subject of concern. Currently, blogs are used by many governments to promote public communication. Most government agencies in the U.S. have blogs ranging from re...