Title: Do media reflect reality?: a quantitative study

Authors: Franci Demšar; Tomaž Boh; Primož Južnič

Addresses: Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS), Bleiweisova cesta 30, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia ' Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS), Bleiweisova cesta 30, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia ' Faculty of Arts, Department of Library and Information, University of Ljubljana, Science and Book Studies, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija

Abstract: Transparency is one of the key concepts determining democratic governance, where those affected by a certain decision shall be informed about all aspects and background of the decision. Information technologies are more and more used as an important tool to organise our lives and check performance of providers of different goods and services. In the article the coverage of processes within the public institutions is analysed. On the basis of case study it is discovered that a proportion of processes covered by the mass media is extremely small and consequently the picture about the operation of institutions is distorted. From that reason, an alternative/complementary channel of full process disclosure by using internet is proposed. A new media with full access to information could serve as an important element of providing adequate information and increasing transparency and effectiveness of public administration.

Keywords: transparency; mass media; new technologies; public administration; Slovenia; reality; democratic governance; democracy; decisions; ICT; information technology; communications technology; public institutions; full process disclosure; internet; world wide web; information access; effectiveness; distortion; Ministry of Defence; ministries; government departments; newspapers; innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2013.052284

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2013 Vol.13 No.2, pp.140 - 152

Published online: 31 Jul 2013 *

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