Management of institutional digital media in graduate education: an analysis from the perspectives of knowledge management and process managementABSTRACT
Introduction: Institutional and scientific communication plays a strategic role in public universities by enabling access to information, promoting transparency, and strengthening the visibility of research, especially in the context of graduate education.
Objective: To analyze how institutional digital media management practices are organized in Graduate Programs at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) and to identify the challenges that affect them, from the perspective of knowledge management and process management. Methodology: This qualitative, exploratory, and applied study was based on a literature review, documentary analysis, and an online questionnaire administered to those responsible for managing digital media, with approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Approval No. 7,896,089).
Results: The results indicate the central role of technical-administrative staff in the daily updating of channels, low formal specialization for the activity, concentration of tasks among a small number of people, and the absence of standardized guidelines for workflows, responsibilities, and publication criteria. Heterogeneous combinations of channels and routines are also observed, affecting informational consistency and institutional memory.
Conclusion: The study finds a need to systematize critical knowledge and formalize replicable procedures to improve institutional digital communication and strengthen its adherence to the requirements of transparency and social impact in graduate education.
KEYWORDS
Knowledge management; Communication in organizations; Graduate programs; Web content management; Tacit knowledge.
RESUMO
Introdução: A comunicação institucional e científica desempenha um papel estratégico nas universidades públicas ao viabilizar o acesso à informação, promover a transparência e fortalecer a visibilidade das pesquisas, especialmente no contexto da pós-graduação.
Objetivo: Analisar como se organizam as práticas de gestão das mídias digitais institucionais em Programas de Pós-Graduação da Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) e identificar os desafios que as atravessam, sob a perspectiva da gestão do conhecimento e da gestão por processos.
Metodologia: Pesquisa qualitativa, exploratória e aplicada, baseada em revisão bibliográfica, análise documental e aplicação de questionário online com responsáveis pela gestão das mídias digitais, com aprovação pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Parecer nº 7.896.089).
Resultados: Os resultados indicam a centralidade de servidores técnico-administrativos na atualização cotidiana dos canais, baixa especialização formal para a atividade, concentração das tarefas em poucas pessoas e ausência de diretrizes padronizadas para fluxos, responsabilidades e critérios de publicação. Observam-se, ainda, combinações heterogêneas de canais e rotinas, com impactos na consistência informacional e na memória institucional.
Conclusão: Conclui-se pela necessidade de sistematizar conhecimentos críticos e formalizar procedimentos replicáveis, de modo a qualificar a comunicação digital institucional e ampliar sua aderência às exigências de transparência e impacto social na pós-graduação.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE
Gestão do conhecimento; Comunicação nas organizações; Programas de pós-graduação; Gestão de conteúdos na web; Conhecimento tácito.
1 INTRODUCTION
As digital communication has become a structural dimension of higher education institutions, institutional websites and digital media have become central components of university governance. In the context of stricto sensu graduate programs, these digital environments serve as organizational tools that support information flows, administrative routines, records of academic activities, and interaction with internal and external audiences, rather than merely as channels for occasional dissemination.
In postgraduate programs (PPGs), institutional digital communication serves multiple functions simultaneously. It organizes admissions processes and academic calendars, documents teaching and research activities, and supports the circulation of information among peers. To a lesser extent, it facilitates the public dissemination of knowledge. Despite their operational centrality, these environments are rarely the subject of systematic analysis. They are often treated instrumentally or as incidental in discussions of evaluation, visibility, and the institutional integration of graduate studies.
Brazilian graduate program evaluation policies, conducted by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES), recognize the importance of institutional visibility and the social integration of programs, particularly in item 3.3 of the evaluation forms (Brazil, 2019). However, these dimensions are predominantly evaluated by the presence of channels, products, and declared actions, without a detailed examination of how digital communication is organized, maintained, and operationalized in graduate programs daily. This hinders understanding the concrete conditions that support or limit programs' communication performance (Migliato, 2026).
In this context, managing institutional digital media can be understood as an organizational and informational problem involving decisions about division of labor, responsibilities, planning, standardizing procedures, and circulating institutional knowledge. Approaches derived from knowledge management (KM) and process management (PM) offer relevant analytical tools for examining these dimensions. These approaches allow us to observe how tacit and explicit knowledge is mobilized, how routines are established, and how information flows within academic organizations.
This article presents an analysis of the management of institutional digital media in postgraduate programs affiliated with the Center for Education and Humanities (CECH) at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar). The objective is to analyze these programs' management of institutional digital media as part of the graduate school's organizational infrastructure in light of knowledge and process management. The specific objectives are to analyze the types of content published in the "News" section of institutional websites to identify communication patterns; examine how those responsible organize routines, responsibilities, and workflows; identify structural and organizational limitations; and discuss implications for governance, institutional memory, and visibility.
The results suggest that, in the analyzed programs, institutional digital communication primarily operates as an extension of administrative routines and peer-to-peer communication. This communication is supported by informal practices, situated learning, and the accumulation of tacit knowledge by technical and administrative staff. While the absence of guidelines, training, and systematic planning does not prevent the existence of these channels, it limits their consolidation as an integral part of graduate program governance. The findings suggest the need to recognize digital media management as a strategic organizational dimension that depends on processes, institutional policies, and mechanisms for preserving academic memory, with a focus on generating social impact.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Latour (2012, p. 299) argues that information technologies have not transformed human beings into "posthumans" or cyborgs, but rather, have made visible associations that previously existed in a virtual or barely traceable form. Therefore, digital technologies do not create new social realities; rather, they allow us to observe, record, and analyze relationships that were previously fragmented, dispersed, or invisible due to the complexity of social processes.
In the context of graduate schools, communication practices between staff and the academic community have always existed, albeit in a loosely structured manner, heavily dependent on informal interactions. With the incorporation of digital media, such as websites, social media (e.g., Instagram and Facebook), and messaging tools, these practices have become more formalized and systematized. Most importantly, they have become observable. This shift facilitates monitoring communication routines and enables more precise analysis of public communication within the university environment.
The visibility provided by institutional digital media allows us to identify patterns, bottlenecks, and opportunities to improve the relationship between graduate programs and their various audiences. When planned and executed consistently, digital communication contributes to the standardization of messages, reduces information noise, and expands the reach of programs' actions and results. Transparently publicizing academic activities holds graduate programs accountable to society and strengthens a cohesive institutional image aligned with science, technology, and innovation guidelines.
CAPES' evaluation criteria, particularly under the "Impact on Society" category (Brazil, 2019), highlight the importance of visibility and integrating programs into the digital environment. In this sense, studying and improving institutional digital media management is not only an operational requirement for graduate studies offices but also a relevant institutional strategy for validating the evidence and indicators used in evaluation processes.
Currently, institutional websites and social media are important tools for disseminating academic activities, research results, and events. However, the effectiveness of these channels depends on minimum institutional conditions, such as training the responsible teams and establishing clear, integrated guidelines for producing, curating, and publishing content. The 2020-2024 Strategic Plan for Graduate Studies at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) includes staff training initiatives. Still, they have not yet been systematically integrated into the administrative offices' daily operations.
The absence of standardized policies and the shortage of professionals with specialized communication training compromise the ongoing updating of digital platforms and the integration across various institutional channels. From a communication perspective, scientific outreach requires adaptation to the target audience and sociocultural context while accounting for political, economic, and institutional constraints (Leite, Vianna, and Colombo Junior, 2022). Within UFSCar, graduate programs face structural limitations, including a shortage of trained staff, difficulty in continuously updating information, and administrative obstacles that hinder integration across institutional systems and workflows.
Nevertheless, digital media present significant opportunities. These include expanding the international reach of research, diversifying audiences to include non-academic segments, and strengthening institutional visibility. The latter is a factor that CAPES considers, directly or indirectly, in its evaluation processes. However, the absence of institutional guidance and structured support undermines the consolidation of these opportunities. As Valeiro and Pinheiro (2008) noted, electronic networks have significantly increased the visibility of science; however, the effective dissemination of information requires responsibility, planning, and communication strategies that ensure democratic and inclusive access.
2.1 Informal networks, collective learning, and institutional memory
To understand contemporary practices in information management, digital communication, and the circulation of knowledge within graduate studies offices, it is important to consider the organizational context in which these activities have historically developed. Even before the systematic adoption of institutional digital media, technical and administrative staff in graduate programs had developed collective strategies to cope with work overload, the absence of institutional training policies, and fragmented administrative processes.
While the initiatives described below are not direct results of this empirical research, they are part of the institutional and professional memory of the field under investigation. They are fundamental to understanding the informal dynamics of learning, collaboration, and knowledge management that underpin academic office routines.
In the absence of institutional training programs since 2011, technical and administrative staff from graduate programs (PPGs) affiliated with the Center for Education and the Humanities (CECH) have initiated collective coordination. Between 2011 and 2013, ten staff members met to explore alternatives to optimize work processes, improve service quality, and address activity overload.
Topics discussed during these meetings included the standardization of institutional documents, the conditions and limitations of the physical space, the distribution of tasks among team members, and the average time required to perform activities. Each staff member presented the practices adopted in their office, shared document templates, and discussed the daily difficulties they faced. This collaborative exchange of experiences enabled them to map activities and identify workflow improvements.
This history shows that academic departments have faced problems since before the expansion of digital media and have sought collective solutions before any structured institutional intervention. Meetings have also played a significant role in integrating technical and administrative staff and strengthening collaborative practices aimed at streamlining internal processes and improving service to the academic community.
In April 2013, the Office of the Provost of Human Resources, supported by the Offices of the Provost of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies and of Administration, hosted the first "UFSCar Integration: Academic Office Services" on the Sorocaba campus. The event brought together technical and administrative staff working in graduate courses, postgraduate programs, and departmental offices. As a result, working committees were formed and organized by area of activity. These committees were responsible for identifying challenges and submitting proposals to the Office of the Provost for Human Resources.
In September 2019, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies requested a second edition of the event through Official Letter No. 292/2019, which was forwarded to the Office of the Dean of Human Resources. The letter highlighted the relevance of the previously addressed topics. However, the request was denied, highlighting a lack of continuity in institutional actions to train and recognize technical and administrative staff. Despite the absence of consolidated institutional policies, staff members have developed their own collaborative practices over the years, based on the exchange of experiences and mutual learning. Knowledge sharing largely occurs through informal communication processes sustained by daily dialogue and cooperation among peers.
This dynamic resembles what Leite (2006) observed while analyzing communication among researchers. He noted that scientific knowledge circulates not only through formal publications but also through informal interactions. In these interactions, daily interactions and the exchange of experiences play a central role. Similarly, graduate studies offices rely on informal communication processes to manage knowledge and maintain institutional routines.
The history of graduate studies offices demonstrates that knowledge management is not limited to a university's formal structures, but is constructed daily through informal networks of cooperation and situated learning. This scenario underscores the importance of examining institutional communication and the digital media of graduate programs from the perspectives of knowledge and process management. It recognizes technical and administrative staff as pivotal figures in preserving institutional memory, maintaining routine continuity, and ensuring service quality.
2.2 Process-based management and governance of graduate studies at UFSCar
The governance structure for graduate studies at UFSCar is organized hierarchically to guide and regulate graduate programs through various institutional levels. The Office of the Provost, the university’s executive body, is at the top of the structure and reports to the University Council, the highest decision-making body. Regarding graduate studies, the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies establishes general guidelines for graduate programs and reports to the Graduate Studies Council. Academic centers, such as CECH, report to the Center Council by field of study.
Each program has a Graduate Studies Committee responsible for internal academic and administrative decisions, developing specific regulations, and adapting institutional guidelines to its context. The PPG office carries out day-to-day activities. It is composed of a technical-administrative staff member, a coordinator, and a vice-coordinator. They are responsible for ensuring the operationalization of administrative routines and serving as the link between students, faculty, and higher authorities.
This structure reflects a top-down hierarchy in which guidelines, rules, and directives are transmitted from higher to lower levels. However, the PPGs have relative autonomy to define their own regulations, workflows, and practices, provided they align with institutional regulations. This autonomy, combined with a lack of institutional standardization and limited staffing and training, directly affects areas such as institutional digital media management. Each program operates differently in this regard, depending on its internal conditions and interpretations of external demands.
2.3 Integration of Knowledge Management and Process Management
According to the National School of Public Administration (2022), organizations need to structure the management of their work processes to ensure efficiency and innovation. This involves mapping, updating, and continuously sharing best practices. When processes are well-defined and accessible to everyone involved, decision-making and execution of activities become more effective.
The document presents the Knowledge Spiral as an applied example illustrating how knowledge management can be integrated into an institution's daily operations, organized into two operational stages. The first stage involves mapping and formalizing processes. Knowledge is shared among employees and recorded in tools such as manuals, guides, and flowcharts. This facilitates the dissemination and standardization of knowledge. The second stage concerns execution and continuous improvement. In this stage, the formalized processes are put into practice and combined with new experiences. This allows for adjustments and improvements and enables the restart of the knowledge-sharing cycle.
Integrating KM and BP fosters communication, standardizes activities, and optimizes the use of organizational resources. While KM captures, shares, and applies institutional knowledge, BP structures this knowledge into organized flows that enable monitoring, evaluation, and improvement.
According to Choo (2003), based on studies by Nonaka and Takeuchi, organizational knowledge is created through continuous interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge via four modes: socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. Socialization involves transmitting tacit knowledge through shared experiences and observation. Externalization involves converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge through metaphors and collective reflection. Combination involves reorganizing explicit knowledge into new structures. Internalization involves incorporating explicit knowledge into individual practice, thereby making it tacit.
In the context of UFSCar’s graduate programs, integrating KM and GP can reduce knowledge loss during staff turnover or leadership transitions, improve internal and external communication, streamline new-staff training, and enable more efficient responses to legal requirements and CAPES evaluations.
The Brazilian Society of Knowledge Management (2023) states that knowledge management is an essential organizational strategy for enhancing competitive advantage by valorizing intellectual capital and sharing experiences among employees. Its principles include competitive intelligence, competency management, intellectual capital management, information management, and corporate education. These elements work together to ensure that knowledge is collected, stored, disseminated, and applied according to the organization’s needs. Furthermore, creating structured repositories of manuals, reports, and institutional documents facilitates access to and reuse of knowledge. Implementing these principles improves internal processes, reduces costs, strengthens a collaborative culture, and increases decision-making agility.
Finally, Pereira (2016) notes that continuous improvement, also known as Kaizen, can be implemented through periodic discussion groups that identify problems, analyze their causes, and collaboratively propose solutions. These groups are also responsible for discussing how to implement improvements in daily work and transform new procedures into standards adopted by the professionals involved.
From a KM perspective, academic institutions' role in digital media involves identifying, organizing, and circulating knowledge produced within organizations. Thus, managing institutional digital media is a problem that is simultaneously organizational and informational, involving decisions about the division of labor, the assignment of responsibilities, the planning of actions, the standardization of procedures, and the sharing of institutional knowledge.
3 METHODOLOGY
This research was conducted within the context of the stricto sensu graduate programs at UFSCar, focusing on the 12 programs affiliated with CECH. The study aimed to understand the organization of institutional digital media management practices, particularly those related to websites and digital communication channels. The study also aimed to analyze the routines and dynamics of content production and publication, identify critical issues, and propose improvements to work processes.
This applied research is oriented toward producing diagnoses and operational recommendations by combining empirical analysis with the development of guidelines to improve institutional and scientific communication in the context of graduate schools.
The research employed an exploratory, qualitative approach, which is well-suited to investigating phenomena that are not yet well systematized in the field of university management. According to Gil (2008), exploratory research is characterized by greater flexibility in planning and by procedures that enable an initial approach to the object of study, thereby contributing to its delimitation and understanding.
The study employed various methodological strategies, including a literature and document review, an online questionnaire, and an analysis of institutional digital materials. Since the focus of the research was on understanding the practices, routines, and perceptions of the actors involved, qualitative procedures predominated, without statistical sampling or quantitative inferential techniques.
The theoretical-methodological framework addresses assumptions about knowledge management by recognizing that digital communication activities in graduate programs involve knowledge constructed through practice and not always formalized. In this context, a distinction is made between tacit knowledge, which is acquired through experience and difficult to formalize, and explicit knowledge, which is amenable to systematization and sharing. Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge is a central organizational challenge because it makes previously implicit practices visible and accessible (Bem and Ribeiro Junior, 2006). In the context of this research, this distinction informs the analysis of graduate programs' communication routines, particularly those sustained by informal practices, accumulated experience, and knowledge that institutions have not yet systematically organized.
3.1 Data collection procedures
Data collection was conducted using a combined qualitative approach, involving an online questionnaire and documentary analysis of digital media produced by CECH/UFSCar graduate programs and made publicly available. The process was structured into three complementary stages:
(a) administering an online questionnaire to the CECH/UFSCar graduate programs;
(b) document analysis and direct observation of the programs’ digital media, emphasizing websites;
The third stage involved recording and systematizing the reported communication practices to identify recurring patterns and challenges in digital communication management.
The questionnaire was designed based on GC and GP principles and included both closedand open-ended questions about organizational practices, responsibilities, and challenges related to institutional digital communication. The instrument aimed to map perceptions, routines, and critical issues affecting the institutional visibility of graduate programs.
To ensure clarity and apparent validity, a pretest was conducted with three participants: two affiliated with graduate programs and one with the Graduate Studies Office. The participants evaluated the questionnaire in terms of its language, structure, and the relevance of its questions. The suggestions they presented were incorporated into the final version.
The study was approved by the UFSCar Human Research Ethics Committee (Opinion No. 7,896,089) and registered on Plataforma Brasil. For the Graduate Program in Philosophy specifically, data collection was conducted by emailing the program coordinator, given one of the researchers' professional involvements in the program. This approach ensured consistency in content, deadlines, and procedures, guaranteeing confidentiality and mitigating potential influences arising from professional ties. Regarding data collection from digital media, an analysis was conducted of the content published in the “News” sections of the graduate programs’ websites. The analysis considered the types of content published, update frequency, communication purposes (informative, scientific, or administrative), and the organization of information. The survey focused on publicly accessible materials, and the data were recorded to identify recurrences and communication trends.
To define the time frame for the media analysis, we considered content published on the PPG websites from 2017 to 2025 to capture the most recent communication practices.
Regarding CAPES evaluation documents, the 2017-2020 cycle was used as a reference because it includes officially released evaluation reports. Reports from the 2021-2024 cycle were excluded from the analysis because they were not publicly available at the time of data collection.
Thus, the analysis combined recent empirical evidence from digital media with the latest officially consolidated evaluation cycle. This allowed for an examination of continuities and changes in the programs’ institutional communication practices.
3.2 Data Analysis Procedures
The collected data underwent qualitative and interpretive analysis to understand the institutional practices of digital media management within CECH/UFSCar's graduate programs. The analysis aimed to describe current practices, identify recurring patterns and structural limitations in institutional digital communication, and discuss the implications for governance, institutional memory, and program visibility.
Inspired by Justi's (2019) study of scientific outreach practices at Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Centers of the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation in the field of Science, Technology, and Society, the analysis of digital publications examined the programs' digital communication practices. The conceptual basis for distinguishing between scientific communication and scientific outreach was informed by Bueno's (2010) assumptions that these processes differ in terms of target audience, language, dissemination channels, and communicative intent.
Based on this framework, the study adapted its methodology to the context of graduate programs by creating a third analytical category, Administrative/Informative, to account for institutional publications that are typical of graduate program routines. Thus, the publications were classified as follows:
a) Administrative/informative: Content focused on academic and administrative management, such as announcements, deadlines, calendars, notices, results, and procedural guidelines.
(b) Scientific communication: publications aimed at circulating and validating scientific output and academic life among peers. This category includes content about scientific events, research projects, academic networks, academic rituals, and deliberate political-institutional stances.
C. Scientific Outreach: Content aimed at non-specialists that employs strategies of mediation, contextualization, and discursive recoding to expand access to knowledge and promote scientific literacy.
The classification considered elements such as the predominant target audience, language used, content type, format, and communication purpose. For hybrid publications, the criteria regarding the predominant communicative objective, presumed recipient, and discursive form were adopted in accordance with the outlined methodology.
Due to the large volume of data generated by classifying publications across the 12 graduate programs, a hybrid strategy was adopted to present the results, balancing methodological transparency, text readability, and the manuscript's editorial feasibility.
The complete database containing the classification of all news items from the twelve programs, as well as the data collection instrument used in the research, has been deposited in the SciELO Data repository. During the peer review process, access to the dataset is restricted to preserve the authors' anonymity. After the manuscript is approved, the dataset is made publicly available with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for verification, replication, or further analysis.
Based on this integrated analysis, proposals to improve the management of institutional digital media for CECH/UFSCar's graduate programs were developed.
4 RESULTS
UFSCar’s CECH is home to 12 stricto sensu graduate programs, all of which have been accredited by CAPES with ratings ranging from 4 to 7. This group includes established programs created in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the Graduate Program in Education (1976) and the Graduate Program in Special Education (1978), as well as more recent programs launched in the 2000s, including the Science, Technology, and Society program (2007) and the Literature Studies program (2011).
The graduate programs maintain websites hosted on the university’s institutional domain (ufscar.br). Most of these websites adhere to technical and visual standards compatible with the Plone Content Management System. According to the General Secretariat of Information Technology at Universidade Federal de São Carlos, the development of these websites is available upon request to academic units, which are fully responsible for the content they publish. The absence of a uniform institutional policy for stricto sensu graduate programs results in the coexistence of different website models. For example, the Graduate Program in Sociology adopts an independent solution, albeit hosted on the institutional domain. Thus, technical standardization does not translate into uniformity in content management, which remains decentralized and dependent on local practices.
The data collection process began with a survey and analysis of publications on the “News” pages of CECH/UFSCar-affiliated graduate programs' websites. This section was chosen because of its important role in digital communication. It contains information of public interest, which allows us to see how each program builds its institutional and scientific visibility online. The planned scope of the research covers 2017-2025; however, the analysis was limited to the content available in the "News" section of each website on the consultation dates (October 19 and November 2, 5, and 12, 2025). Thus, the analyzed period for each graduate program corresponds to the range covered by the available posts, from the starting year of the news archive through 2025. This does not imply a lack of activity in years without records.
As defined in the data collection section, the study employs a typology inspired by Bueno (2010) and Justi (2019). This typology distinguishes between scientific communication, which is aimed at circulation among peers, and scientific outreach, which is oriented toward the non-specialized public. Given the specificities of institutional websites and the strong presence of content focused on administrative routines, this study adds a third category, "Administrative/Informational." This category includes posts related to announcements, calendars, selection processes, notices, and other academic management records.
The analysis shows the distribution of publications across these three categories (Administrative/Informational, Scientific Communication, and Scientific Outreach) for each program. It describes the observed patterns of language, target audience, and communicative purpose in the material.
For example, the complete analysis of publications by the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology (PPGAS) (CAPES Rating: 5) is presented below based on the data in Table 1.
Table 1 shows the distribution of posts in the "News" section of the PPGAS website, categorized according to the typology developed by Bueno (2010) and Justi (2019). The data show a predominance of administrative and informational content related to academic management routines and procedural transparency, such as announcements, deadlines, courses, and bulletins. This indicates that the website primarily functions as a channel for internal organization. Next are peer-reviewed scientific publications related to intra-community circulation, such as academic events, calls for papers, and research networks. Scientific outreach has a minor presence, indicating a low frequency of texts with mediation and language aimed at non-specialized audiences on this page.
The evaluation form from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel documents evidence of communication and visibility strategies regarding the program’s performance during the 2017-2020 quadrennium (Rating: Very Good; Weight: 30.0). It highlights the maintenance of an active, updated website with Portuguese, English, and Spanish versions, including links to groups, centers, and laboratories. The website also has a social media presence and promotes the scientific journal R@U, which was classified as Qualis A3 during the period. The evaluation also mentions other dissemination and public outreach methods for the program's activities, including websites for scientific and/or technical dissemination, media production (e.g., educational videos), participation in radio and TV programs, press articles and columns, and cultural and academic production (e.g., ethnographic films, photo essays, curatorial projects, shows, and exhibitions). This set is rated outstanding, consistent with the final rating assigned to item 3.3 (Brazil, 2022).
The analyzed sample shows that the PPGAS has a high proportion of posts classified as Administrative/Informational and Peer-to-Peer Scientific Communication, and a low proportion of posts classified as scientific outreach. According to Bueno (2010) and Justi (2019), this pattern indicates a low frequency of recording and mediation strategies aimed at a non-specialized audience. This makes the page's communicative function more similar to an institutional bulletin board and showcase of academic activities than a systematic channel for public science communication. In contrast, item 3.3 was rated "Very Good" in the 2017-2020 quadrennial evaluation based on evidence such as an active website (including a multilingual version), a social media presence, maintenance of a scientific journal, and production or participation in various media and dissemination products (Brazil, 2022). This discrepancy suggests that the evaluation form's notion of visibility may rely more on the existence and diversity of channels and products than on the communication mediation present in the website's daily news flow.
This analysis, exemplified by the PPGAS case, was applied to all graduate programs under observation in this study. The research covered the period from 2017 to 2025. However, analysis of the "News" section across the 12 programs revealed a recurring pattern of temporal discontinuity. On several websites, the public news archive begins only in 2021 or 2022. This reduced timeframe coincides with the phase of redesigning the institutional websites at UFSCar.
The analysis of the website update process reveals differences in how content is handled. More stable pages, such as those containing research areas, faculty, and institutional documents, were migrated, restructured, or rewritten. The “News” section now functions as a new feed that is updated from the moment the redesigned website went live. As a result, some of the content from the 2017-2020 period is inaccessible to the public in this section. This weakens the function of institutional memory and hinders public verification of past actions.
Therefore, this article's analysis considers the time span of the available posts for each PPG during the consultation period (October and November 2025), from the initial year of the news archive through 2025. It does not imply inactivity in years without records. To contextualize the digital presence in previous years and identify signs of structural reformulation, records from the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive, 2026) were consulted. The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the internet that preserves older versions of pages and websites over time without reclassifying or reconstructing the complete news archive from previous versions. While this data does not explain the institutional motivations behind the change, it does describe a concrete effect. In some programs, the "News" section lost its historical continuity, directly affecting the traceability of content over time.
In graduate programs that updated to the new Plone website model, the discontinuity affects more than just the 2017-2020 period. It highlights the broader problem of preserving UFSCar’s digital institutional memory. In several cases, news items only began to exist after the migration, and there is no public repository that allows the retrieval of earlier history. From an information management perspective, this pattern indicates that the university lacks a structured policy for preserving graduate program news archives, undermining the historical reconstruction of actions and the transparency of program trajectories.
Across the 12 programs analyzed, posts are consistently distributed by category: Administrative/Informational content is prevalent, followed by news on Peer-Reviewed Scientific Communication. Scientific outreach has a proportionally very low share. In practice, this means that even in areas with significant potential for social impact, graduate programs primarily use the "News" section to organize internal processes, such as calls for applications, deadlines, selection processes, calendars, and elections, and to document academic activities intended for specialized audiences. They do not systematically engage in translating and mediating knowledge for the general public.
The CAPES evaluation forms reinforce this interpretation while introducing complexity. Item 3.3 (internationalization, outreach, and visibility) has different weightings and criteria across fields. In several programs, reviews praise the "quality of the website" without necessarily translating into communication strategies aimed at the general public (Brazil, 2019). In practice, digital visibility is primarily evaluated based on the organization and existence of institutional information, such as pages in multiple languages, access to theses and dissertations, forms, regulations, and faculty and student data, rather than on the presence of scientific outreach content in the "News" section.
It is also important to note that the summarized reports refer to the 2017-2020 quadrennium, yet several graduate programs (PPGs) launched or redesigned their websites after this period. While there is evidence that some programs responded to the evaluations with structural improvements to their websites, this did not automatically imply a shift in the communication paradigm. For the most part, even topics of great public interest remain confined to the academic circuit. For example, in the PPGAS, the evaluation form mentions radio and TV programs, press articles, and media production. However, these activities are not documented in the website's news section. In the Graduate Program in Information Science, the evaluation form notes a structured website with academic and administrative information. However, the accessible news archive only allows viewing of posts from 2022 onward. In the Postgraduate Programs in Image and Sound and Linguistics, the 2017-2020 evaluations note the absence of social media. This is consistent with the pattern observed in the news and indicates a visibility strategy that remains heavily anchored in internal channels.
In summary, cross-analyzing news items and evaluation reports shows that the visibility that CAPES recognizes for CECH/UFSCar's graduate programs is primarily associated with the informational and structural robustness of their websites and their engagement in other academic channels. Communication with the non-specialist public appears only marginally and is poorly institutionalized on the news pages.
The analyses reveal that the CECH/UFSCar graduate programs' websites predominantly serve as administrative bulletin boards and channels for peer-to-peer communication, with minimal scientific outreach. However, these findings do not reveal how these channels are managed on a day-to-day basis or how the individuals responsible for updating digital media understand their work.
To explore this further, the study included a phase of primary data collection via a questionnaire administered to program teams, which is presented below.
5 DISCUSSION
The findings obtained from the questionnaire administered to CECH/UFSCar graduate program staff members allow for a deeper interpretation of the previous section's results, particularly regarding the organizational conditions that underpin institutional digital visibility. The response rate, with participation from ten of the twelve invited programs, reinforces the representativeness of the analyzed perceptions. It also highlights the central role of technical and administrative staff in the day-to-day operation of digital media. These data complement the documentary analysis of the news pages and reveal structural and organizational aspects that explain the observed communication patterns.
Respondents' profiles reveal technical and administrative staff's central role in managing graduate programs: nine of the ten questionnaires were completed by administrative office staff, and only one was answered by a faculty member serving as a program coordinator. Respondents' years of service range from 1 to 17 years, with an average of 7 years and 9 months, indicating a significant accumulation of tacit knowledge regarding institutional norms, routines, and systems.
Regarding the digital channels used, all respondents stated that the graduate program maintains an institutional website and an official WhatsApp channel. These channels have become the primary means of communication between students and faculty. Instagram is the most widely used social media platform among the programs. Nine out of ten graduate programs reported using it. YouTube (7 programs) and Facebook (6 programs) were also mentioned, though they have a smaller reach. More specialized resources, such as LinkedIn and newsletters, were mentioned only sporadically (by two graduate programs each), while only one program cited the podcast channel. In turn, Telegram, Twitter/X, and blogs were not presented as channels that the respondents used or updated effectively.
The data also indicate that responsibility for updating these channels tends to be concentrated among a few people, especially for the most frequently used channels. For institutional websites, updates are performed by technical-administrative staff in eight of the ten graduate programs, by a scholarship recipient/intern in one case, and by students, faculty, and technical-administrative staff in one case. For the institutional WhatsApp channel, updates are assigned to technical-administrative staff in nine programs and to a scholarship recipient/intern in one program. On Instagram, updates are assigned to a scholarship recipient/intern in three programs, to students in two, and to a technical-administrative staff member in two. They are managed jointly in two (one by a faculty member and a technical-administrative staff member, and one by a student and a faculty member). In one program, Instagram is not used.
Regarding the division of tasks in digital management, five programs report operating with a defined team. Three state that there is no clarity regarding this division. Two indicate that one person performs all tasks, including content creation, review, posting, responding to requests, and other administrative duties.
When asked about publication planning, respondents indicated a markedly reactive pattern. Seven participants reported that posts on digital media are made as events, announcements, or commemorative dates arise. Five participants explicitly stated that there is no specific planning for the PPG’s digital media. Four cases mentioned alignment with the program’s institutional agenda, and four cases mentioned reactive posts when something urgent arises. This dynamic is reflected in the absence of regular routines. Nine respondents stated that there is no fixed schedule for posts. Overall, planning is informal, based on immediate demands and the availability of those carrying out the tasks, rather than on a systematic editorial calendar.
Regarding practical difficulties, the responses converge on certain themes. The first theme is work overload, mentioned in six responses and often associated with a lack of time and the accumulation of administrative tasks alongside digital media management. The second theme is a lack of training, mentioned in four responses. This makes content production more dependent on informal learning and improvised solutions. Added to this are the absence of guidelines in some programs (four respondents stated that there are no guidelines on what can or should be posted) and a lack of clarity regarding task division in three cases. Furthermore, two programs rely on a single person to perform all digital management tasks.
The chart reflects this directly in response to the question about formal training: none of the ten respondents reported participating in digital media training. Nevertheless, all consider digital communication to contribute to the program’s institutional visibility to some extent: seven indicate this contribution is "significant," and three assess it as "partial," demonstrating an awareness of the topic's importance despite the identified weaknesses.
Regarding accessibility, data protection, and copyright, the questionnaire reveals a mixed picture. Only three respondents stated that the graduate program considers digital accessibility criteria, such as image descriptions, contrast, and readability. Seven reported that these practices are not adopted, and three are unaware whether they are applied. Regarding the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), the vast majority indicate that there is institutional guidance on personal data protection. However, one respondent reports that there is no guidance, and one states that they are unaware. Six respondents state that attention is paid to the correct use of images and protected works. Four indicate that such care is not taken, or that they do not know.
Another relevant aspect concerns feedback on communication efforts. Regarding feedback from the academic or external community, four participants stated that they had not received any feedback; two reported receiving positive feedback; two reported receiving mixed feedback; and two said that they were unaware of whether any feedback had been provided. Furthermore, when asked about comments or guidance in CAPES evaluations regarding the communication or visibility of the graduate program, six respondents said they were unaware of such records, three indicated that some type of comment had been made, and one responded negatively.
Despite this context, the questionnaire reveals a strong willingness to improve. Nine respondents stated that a best-practices manual would be helpful, and one respondent indicated "maybe." When asked to comment on the content of a potential manual or guide, participants highlighted the following topics repeatedly: defining posting frequency and planning (5); visual standardization and institutional identity (9); writing guidelines and accessible language (7); accessibility guidelines (9); the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) (9); the ethical use of images and data/copyright (9); and suggestions for tools and platforms (8) that facilitate the production and publication workflow.
The survey results confirm three key points. First, management of digital media for CECH/UFSCar’s graduate programs (PPGs) relies heavily on technical and administrative staff who have practical knowledge of and responsibility for communication channels. Furthermore, no respondents reported participating in formal digital media training, and management often occurs without structured support. Second, the programs’ digital presence is concentrated in a few channels, notably the institutional website, WhatsApp, and Instagram. However, this activity tends to be reactive and poorly planned. Posts are made as events, announcements, and demands arise without a fixed schedule. Content prioritizes promoting academic events, selection process results, and program updates, which limits the use of more diverse formats. Third, stakeholders recognize the importance of digital communication for the programs’ institutional visibility and explicitly demand guidelines, tools, and organizational models that support their work and reduce their workload.
Overall, the survey results reveal significant gaps in institutional guidance and the standardization of digital communication practices within CECH/UFSCar's graduate programs. Many respondents stated that there are no clear internal guidelines on what can or should be published. They also reported ambiguities regarding the division of tasks related to producing, updating, and monitoring digital content.
The lack of formal training exacerbates this situation; none of the participants reported taking institutional courses or training focused on digital media management. This absence contributes to the predominance of informal learning processes and the heterogeneity of communication practices among the graduate programs, which depend heavily on the individual experiences of technical and administrative staff.
Regarding the normative and quality dimensions of digital communication, the data indicate asymmetry and operational fragility. Only a minority of respondents cited digital accessibility criteria such as image descriptions, adequate contrast, and readability. At the same time, the majority stated that they do not adopt these criteria or are unable to provide information on their application. Personal data protection, regulated by the General Data Protection Law, was mentioned most frequently among the institutional guidelines. However, there were also responses indicating a lack of awareness or the absence of clear guidelines. Copyright, on the other hand, receives varying attention, including mentions of a lack of specific precautions or uncertainty regarding adopted practices.
Taken together, these findings suggest that local and individual efforts primarily sustain digital communication and lack sufficient institutional support to ensure consistent, accessible, and legally certain communication activities within the programs.
In light of these results, there are clear opportunities to improve digital communication practices in graduate programs, particularly by institutionalizing knowledge, streamlining processes, and enhancing the work of technical and administrative staff.
A primary focus should be on knowledge management, which involves identifying and systematizing critical knowledge that underpins routine communication activities. This includes the use of tools, the application of templates, the definition of operational workflows, textual standards, and the legal considerations involved in content publication. Organizing this knowledge in accessible repositories and documenting recurring practices and decisions through checklists, templates, frequently asked questions, and tutorials can reduce dependence on tacit knowledge. This will facilitate training and replacing staff, especially in high-turnover environments.
Additionally, adopting a process-based management approach to digital communication is recommended. This approach maps the end-to-end workflow from initial demand to the archiving and preservation of institutional memory. This mapping should include stages such as curation, production, review, publication, monitoring, and archiving. It should also include the definition of minimum roles, control points, publication criteria, deadlines, and operational standards. This will contribute to greater predictability, transparency, and quality in communication efforts.
The findings also underscore the necessity of structured investments in training and the dissemination of best practices. In this regard, regular workshops should be provided that focus on content production, basic design concepts, digital accessibility, personal data protection, and copyright. These workshops should be tailored to the specific needs of graduate schools. Additionally, developing clear institutional guidelines on what to publish, how to publish it, where to publish it, and how to demonstrate impact and visibility can help align expectations, reduce uncertainty, and improve program communication.
Another relevant proposal is the development of a practical, illustrated, and applied guide or manual on digital communication. This material could include workflows, checklists, post examples, accessible language standards, and legal compliance guidelines. It could also provide reusable templates, such as card templates, boilerplate text, news scripts, and authorization forms, where applicable. A manual of this type functions as a daily support tool that promotes standardization without stifling local practices.
For monitoring and evaluation of actions, a minimum set of metrics should be defined for each communication channel. These metrics could include website visits, social media reach and engagement, response times on customer service channels, and link clicks. Establishing a simple monitoring and recording routine on a monthly or bimonthly basis can inform prioritization decisions, demonstrate results, and strengthen the legitimacy of communication work within the programs.
Finally, in alignment with CAPES’ evaluation criteria, especially regarding impact and visibility, it is recommended to integrate knowledge management and process management. Systematically linking records and outputs from the communication process to evaluation evidence can strengthen traceability and institutional memory. To this end, it is essential to standardize methods for documenting impactful activities, such as partnerships, products, media appearances, public events, and educational materials, so that this information is not dependent on scattered reports or individuals' memories.
6 CONCLUSION
This study revealed that the management of institutional digital media in UFSCar’s postgraduate programs relies on individuals from various backgrounds, including faculty, technical and administrative staff, students, and scholarship recipients. These individuals generally lack the technical, regulatory, or structural support necessary to meet the current demands of institutional and scientific communication.
Examining management practices and publication routines revealed a significant discrepancy between the visibility and social impact expectations reinforced by CAPES’ evaluation criteria and the programs' actual working conditions. This discrepancy leads to practices of improvisation, individual effort, and ad hoc solutions, which compromise the consistency, accessibility, and traceability of institutional digital communication.
The exploratory, qualitative methodological approach also revealed informal management arrangements sustained by collaborative networks among staff members. Within these networks, a significant volume of tacit knowledge constructed in the day-to-day operations of administrative offices circulates. According to Latour (2012), these dynamics underscore the fluidity of the sociotechnical networks underlying institutional communication. In these networks, roles and responsibilities are continually redefined based on the connections established between human and non-human actors.
The results indicate that digital visibility has primarily been operationalized as structural compliance of institutional websites rather than as a systematic strategy for public science communication. This is because the "News" section predominantly functions as a tool for administrative management and peer-to-peer communication. There is low institutionalization of scientific outreach practices aimed at the non-specialist public.
Thus, it is concluded that overcoming the identified weaknesses requires integrated institutional strategies. These strategies should involve the institutionalization of clear norms and guidelines, the formal recognition of communication activities, continuous investments in training, the strengthening of knowledge management, and the preservation of digital institutional memory. Additionally, communication processes must be integrated into the criteria for evaluating impact and social inclusion. By highlighting the discrepancy between everyday digital communication practices and the visibility parameters used in evaluation instruments, the study contributes to the debate on improving the governance of graduate education. It reinforces the need for policies that recognize institutional digital communication as a strategic dimension of graduate education. These policies should value public science communication, digital accessibility, and transparency as structural components of evaluating and integrating public universities into the National Graduate Education System.
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Funding:
Not applicable.
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Approval:
Not applicable.
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Declaration of AI tool use:
The authors declare that AI tools were used for strictly instrumental purposes, duly disclosed, and that they assume full human responsibility for the content, arguments, and conclusions presented.
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Image:
Retrieved from the Lattes platform.
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Translation:
S. Iacovacci Translon Service.
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JITA:
FJ. Knowledge management
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SDG:
4. Quality education
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Article submitted to the similarity checker
Acknowledgments:
To the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for its support of this research. To the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for its support of this research, grant number 303721/2025-1.
Availability of data and material:
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Edited by
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Editor:
Gildenir Carolino Santos https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4375-6815
