Transparency in Government Communication from the Perspective of Information Officers
Abstract
<Concepcion, S.M.T. (2017). Transparency in Government Communication from the Perspective of the Information Officers. Unpublished undergraduate thesis, University of the Philippines Diliman College of Mass Communication.
The study looks into the narratives of government communicators from the Philippine Information Agency to understand how national information officers value and observe transparency in their profession. The study is guided by Fairbanks’ Three-Dimensional Model for Transparency in Government Communication to analyze the organizational dimensions of a transparent government communication and by Dervin’s Theory of Sensemaking to contextualize the subjective accounts of the informants who participated in the study. The researcher was able to interview 11 information officers from five different divisions of PIA. The interviews revealed that the value of transparency is largely driven by the personal beliefs of the informants that transparency can build public trust, overcome communication barriers, improve the lives of Filipinos, and mitigate government corruption. The information officers also go through a series of organizational steps that reinforce transparency in their profession. These steps include human development programs, public consultations, adequate resource allocation, detailed documentation, effort recognition, and constant management supervision. The informants have also noted that public feedback, information laws, personal convictions, and organizational support can facilitate transparency in government communication. On the other hand, the factors that can hinder transparency in PIA include miscommunications with the administration, politics and corruption, protection of sensitive information, tediousness of bureaucracy, and lack of internal compliance. >