The communication of Courts of Accounts and Prosecution Services on social media: the challenges of accountability in the digital democracy

Abstract

This article deals with the communication of Brazilian Courts of Accounts and Prosecution Services on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, since the opening of their accounts. The study innovates in the discussion about democratic controls over public administration in the so-called “digital democracy,” focusing on institutional communication of Courts of Accounts and Prosecution Services, showing that controllers also need to be concerned about their transparency and accountability. Having verified that they maintain professional communication departments that operate intensively on social media, with emphasis on the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and the Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) on Twitter, the article specifically analyzes the content of the two institutions’ communication in this platform by using the Iramuteq software. Both TCU and MPF kept posting a variety of content on Twitter since first opening their accounts and at important moments in recent political history. The research question addressed was: Does expanding communication channels necessarily mean greater accountability? The study found that these institutions, when communicating with society on social media, did not necessarily respond to the public accountability requirements that democratic theory implies.

Keywords:
communication of public institutions; democratic theory; control; transparency; content analysis