Youth portals and social networks: public communication for engagement and participation

In spite of the multiplication of digital public communication actions targeting young people, there is a shortage of research that systematically evaluates their performance in the dissemination of relevant information and their potential to promote participation and engagement. This research contributes to fill this gap by providing answers to the following question: have information and communication technologies contributed so that the young ones may be able to exercise their right to information and communication about public policies, providing opportunities to assimilate relevant information, participate and interact in democratic communication flows? The general aim of this research was to produce scientific knowledge about the adequacy of management strategies of governmental public communication in government websites and official social networks in relation to their potential to fulfill the right to information and communication on public management. Specific goals included: a) assessing the quality of youth public policy information on government websites and verifying whether the available content provides comprehensive subsidies according to specific categories of information; b) verifying if public communication processes and strategies employed in official social networks have the potential to favor dialogue between youth and governments; c) analyzing whether the existing spaces of conversation in the official social networks favor desirable qualities to public deliberation; d) from the results obtained and interpreted in the light of the specialized literature, reflecting whether the actions of digital public communication had the potential to favor democratic participation and the social engagement of the youngsters, besides suggesting improvement ideas. The results indicate insufficiency and opportunities for improvement in government web portals as well as in government and political parties official websites on social networks. (AU)