Citizen attitudes towards e-government services during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case in Türkiye.

E-government services are essential to societies because they save time, reduce corruption, provide efficient, low-cost, and fast service, increase transparency, and enhance trust in the government. These applications save time, which translates to cost savings by reducing bureaucratic crowds and fatigue and eliminating the need for citizens to travel for offline transactions. This study investigates various factors related to citizens' use of e-government services according to gender differences during and before COVID-19. The microdata set from the Survey on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Usage in Households conducted by TURKSTAT in 2018 and 2021 was used. Additionally, the binary logistic regression method was employed to analyze these factors. According to the research results, it has been determined that variables such as age, education level, occupation, e-commerce use, internet financial transaction status, number of people in the household, and region are associated with women's use of e-government services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that the significance and impact of these variables on the use of e-government services differ based on the gender of individuals and the periods. The study provides recommendations for IT professionals, staff of the interior ministries, and researchers interested in increasing the use of e-government services. This research may also pioneer efforts to identify priority areas for expanding e-government services.

Investigating the impact of culture dimensions on Chinese citizens' continuous use of e-government websites: A cultural model-based study.

Drawing upon Hofstede's cultural model, this study establishes a framework for examining the factors influencing citizens' continuous use of e-government websites. This paper, employing quantile regression, reveals that collectivism, masculinity, long-term orientation, and constraint culture exhibit varying degrees of influence on different levels of continuous use of China's e-government websites. Moreover, it has been observed that masculine culture exerts a limiting effect on the continuous use of e-government websites by the Chinese public, but this restriction diminishes beyond the 50th percentile of continuous usage level. In contrast, constraint-oriented culture consistently influences the Chinese public's continuous usage behavior of e-government websites. Both collectivist culture and long-term orientation culture demonstrate their impact on the continuous use of e-government websites among the Chinese public once a certain threshold of continuous usage level is achieved. In light of these findings, the study suggests that the government should pay attention to the cultural aspects of e-government websites and provide culturally adaptive e-government services to better meet the public's needs and expectations.

Adoption intention of e-government application for public health risk communication: Risk information, social media competence and trust in the government.

Backgrounds: Effective risk communication depends on the government's ability to deploy the latest communication technologies to promptly educate its citizens of new hazards and assist them in making informed decisions. This study investigates the influence of risk information seeking, social media competency and trust in the government on the intention to adopt e-government apps for communicating public health risks. Design and methods: To achieve the study's objective, a convenience sample of 149 Malaysian residents residing in Shah Alam was obtained via a structured questionnaire and subsequently analyzed using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Method. The validity and reliability of the study were evaluated through the outer loadings, Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and Composite Reliability (CR). The influence of underlying factors on the outcome was evaluated by examining path coefficients, standard errors, and t-values. Results: The measurement model suggested to use three items to measure the risk information seeking and five to measure trust in the government information and social competence. Loadings ranged from 0.681 to 0.972. The three factors explained the 43.2% of the outcome variability, and all had a positive effect on the intention to adopt information from the e-government application with coefficients estimates ranging from 0.133 to 0.541. The model showed an adequate predictive relevance with Q2 = 0.381. Conclusion: Public health risk communication via e-government applications rely on the active and accountable engagement of the citizens. To stimulate higher acceptance and utilization of government digital services for sustainable health risk communication and management, the government must raise the public's level of digital literacy and proficiency. By offering training programs and demonstrations, the government may also need to think about making investments in education about digital and technological skill levels.

Achieving a successful e-government: Determinants of behavioral intention from Thai citizens' perspective.

From the COVID-19 pandemic, e-government is a crucial tool in managing crisis and coping with change through communication and collaboration between the government, private, and civil sectors. The objective of this study was to develop an e-government development success model from the perspective of Thai citizens using integrated multiple concepts and to examine factors affecting the behavioral intention of citizens in e-government. A sample is Thai people in all regions of Thailand (n = 540) and analyzes by Structural Equation Model (SEM). The hypothesis testing found that factors directly influencing behavioral intention were information quality, system quality, service quality, citizen satisfaction, perceived usefulness, computer self-efficacy, and trust in government. Trust in government was the most direct influencing factor and was the mediating variable between perceived privacy and perceived security leading to behavioral intention. The results will benefit governments in developing e-government to drive the digital economy and society further.

Adopting e-government to monitor public infrastructure projects execution in Nigeria: The public perspective.

Public infrastructure projects (PIPs) are critical to the socioeconomic development of any country and similar to most public activities, their governance requires effective public participation to be successful. Information and communication technology adoption in government-public engagements (i.e., e-government) has improved public participation in governance in developed countries. This study utilizes the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to investigate determining factors for the Nigerian public to adopt e-government tools to promote public participation in monitoring PIPs execution. It adopts questionnaire survey and structural equation modelling techniques to show that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, social influence, and effort expectancy significantly and positively affect behavioral intention to adopt e-government tools to monitor PIPs execution in Nigeria. This study provides scholars with an exploratory baseline for extension of e-government adoption to public infrastructure project management. This study also provides recommendations to policy makers, government technocrats, and project engineers on the need for policy changes, creation of interactive and up-to-date project websites for PIPs in Nigeria.

[The maturity model for the public health service-a tool for assessing and improving the digital maturity level of German public health agencies]. / Das Reifegradmodell für den Öffentlichen Gesundheitsdienst ­ Ein Instrument zur Erfassung und Verbesserung des digitalen Reifegrades von deutschen Gesundheitsämtern.

The COVID 19 crisis has highlighted the key role of the public health service (PHS), with its approximately 375 municipal health offices involved in the pandemic response. Here, in addition to a lack of human resources, the insufficient digital maturity of many public health departments posed a hurdle to effective and scalable infection reporting and contact tracing. In this article, we present the maturity model (MM) for the digitization of health offices, the development of which took place between January 2021 and February 2022 and was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health. It has been applied since the beginning of 2022 with the aim of strengthening the digitization of the PHS. The MM aims to guide public health departments step by step to increase their digital maturity to be prepared for future challenges. The MM was developed and evaluated based on qualitative interviews with employees of public health departments and other experts in the public health sector as well as in workshops and with a quantitative survey. The MM allows the measurement of digital maturity in eight dimensions, each of which is subdivided into two to five subdimensions. Within the subdimensions a classification is made on five different maturity levels. Currently, in addition to recording the digital maturity of individual health departments, the MM also serves as a management tool for planning digitization projects. The aim is to use the MM as a basis for promoting targeted communication between the health departments to exchange best practices for the different dimensions.

Survey data on the attitudes towards digital technologies and the way of managing e-governmental tasks.

A representative sample of 2520 people was surveyed by completing an online questionnaire using the Tablet Assisted Personal Interviewing (TAPI) method to measure the digital readiness and administrative habits of the population. The data are available in tabular form from an open repository. Some topics were processed by measuring several latent variables and latent class analysis was applied. The database facilitated understanding of the stratification of the population according to digital literacy, preferences with regard to device usage, the purpose of Internet usage, fear of smart systems as well as technophilic and technophobic attitudes. The database revealed the population's administrative practices, particularly their attitudes towards e-government and future development needs. The survey is useful for planning e-government developments. Knowledge of the digital readiness of the population is useful for designing training programs, mapping labor market competencies in the era of Industry 4.0 and developing channels of communication campaigning. Through the regional demographic variables, all of the aforementioned topics can also be used in regional science to measure indices at NUTS 2 or NUTS 3 levels.

Accessibility analysis using WCAG 2.1: evidence from Indian e-government websites.

E-government is a global phenomenon. Many governments throughout the world are using e-government websites to deliver government services to their stakeholders. Consequently, it is now quite crucial for the governments to make sure that e-government websites must be accessible to all stakeholders regardless of their visual, cognitive, and hearing ability. However, many prior studies have shown that most of the e-government websites in different countries do not meet the accessibility guidelines prescribed in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In this article, we present the evaluation of the accessibility of Indian e-government websites using a sample of 65 websites of various ministries based on the WCAG 2.1 standard. We found that the majority of e-government websites do not meet Level A conformance with WCAG 2.1. Our findings suggest that designers and developers of e-government websites should pay due attention to the accessibility features during the design and development of these websites to achieve universal accessibility.

Platform Effects on Public Health Communication: A Comparative and National Study of Message Design and Audience Engagement Across Twitter and Facebook.

Background: Public health agencies widely adopt social media for health and risk communication. Moreover, different platforms have different affordances, which may impact the quality and nature of the messaging and how the public engages with the content. However, these platform effects are not often compared in studies of health and risk communication and not previously for the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: This study measures the potential media effects of Twitter and Facebook on public health message design and engagement by comparing message elements and audience engagement in COVID-19-related posts by local, state, and federal public health agencies in the United States during the pandemic, to advance theories of public health messaging on social media and provide recommendations for tailored social media communication strategies. Methods: We retrieved all COVID-19-related posts from major US federal agencies related to health and infectious disease, all major state public health agencies, and selected local public health departments on Twitter and Facebook. A total of 100,785 posts related to COVID-19, from 179 different accounts of 96 agencies, were retrieved for the entire year of 2020. We adopted a framework of social media message elements to analyze the posts across Facebook and Twitter. For manual content analysis, we subsampled 1677 posts. We calculated the prevalence of various message elements across the platforms and assessed the statistical significance of differences. We also calculated and assessed the association between message elements with normalized measures of shares and likes for both Facebook and Twitter. Results: Distributions of message elements were largely similar across both sites. However, political figures (P<.001), experts (P=.01), and nonpolitical personalities (P=.01) were significantly more present on Facebook posts compared to Twitter. Infographics (P<.001), surveillance information (P<.001), and certain multimedia elements (eg, hyperlinks, P<.001) were more prevalent on Twitter. In general, Facebook posts received more (normalized) likes (0.19%) and (normalized) shares (0.22%) compared to Twitter likes (0.08%) and shares (0.05%). Elements with greater engagement on Facebook included expressives and collectives, whereas posts related to policy were more engaged with on Twitter. Science information (eg, scientific explanations) comprised 8.5% (73/851) of Facebook and 9.4% (78/826) of Twitter posts. Correctives of misinformation only appeared in 1.2% (11/851) of Facebook and 1.4% (12/826) of Twitter posts. Conclusions: In general, we find a data and policy orientation for Twitter messages and users and a local and personal orientation for Facebook, although also many similarities across platforms. Message elements that impact engagement are similar across platforms but with some notable distinctions. This study provides novel evidence for differences in COVID-19 public health messaging across social media sites, advancing knowledge of public health communication on social media and recommendations for health and risk communication strategies on these online platforms.

Penta-Helix Model of E-Government in Combating Corruption in Indonesia and Malaysia: The Moderating Effect of Religiosity.

Background: E-government is an initiative taken by governments worldwide to align the administration of their countries. Governments have utilized the internet as part of a transition into a globalized economy. This helps reduce red tape and procedures in dealing with people in government agencies. This study aims to develop an e-government model as an anti-corruption strategy by applying the Penta-helix model and religiosity as the moderating variable. Methods: The data was gathered from government officials, representatives in business, media, academia, and NGOs, in Indonesia and Malaysia in 2021. Online questionnaires were distributed to 240 respondents from Indonesia and Malaysia. In addition, SPSS v.25 and SEM AMOS v.25 were used to analyze the data. Results: The findings indicate that the Penta-helix elements and religiosity could help to reduce corruption in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Malaysia must increase its human resource competency and embed the religiosity element as a tool to reduce corruption. Conclusion: Penta-helix and religious factors should be incorporated by organizations in Malaysia and Indonesia as part of their strategy in combating corruption.

Effectiveness of using e-government platform "Absher" as a tool for noncommunicable diseases survey in Saudi Arabia 2019-2020: A cross-sectional study.

Background: E-government platforms provide an opportunity to use a novel data source for population health surveillance (also known as e-health). Absher is a Saudi e-government platform with 23 million authenticated users, including residents and citizens in Saudi Arabia. All Absher users were invited to participate in a web-based survey to estimate the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors in Saudi Arabia. Objective: To assess the potential of using an e-government platform (Absher) to administer web-based health surveys. Methods: A cross-sectional, web-based health survey was administered to Absher users between April 2019 and March 2020. The survey instrument included eight items and took <5 min to complete. The respondents' data were compared to Saudi Arabia's 2016 census. Descriptive summary statistics of the prevalence of major noncommuncable diseases are presented and compared to population-based prevalence data from Saudi Arabia's World Health Survey (WHS) 2019. All analysis was conducted using Stata 13.0. Results: Overall, the Absher health survey had a 24.6% response rate, with most respondents being male (84%), Saudi (67%), and between 30 and 44 years of age (49%). Overall, the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and risk factors among respondents was high for overweight (35%) and obesity (30%) and low for asthma (6%). The prevalence of diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension was between 15 and 17% on average, and 26.5% were smokers. In comparison to population-based World Health Survey estimates, the Absher survey overestimated obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and smoking rates, and underestimated overweight, whereas asthma prevalence was similar for Absher and the WHS. Conclusions: With improvements in the study design, the use of e-government platforms can provide a useful and potentially low-cost data source for public health research.

Understanding the drivers of the public value of e-government: Validation of a public value e-government adoption model.

This study examined the factors driving the public value of e-government from the viewpoint of the Chinese people. The usage of ICT through e-government systems must generate the adequate corresponding public value that can motivate the acceptance of e-government services. The sample 517 data generated from Chinese citizens were analyzed using AMOS 23 software by undertaking the structural equation model system of analysis. The results show that constructs such as information quality, service parameters, user orientation, efficiency, openness, and responsiveness were significantly related to the public value of e-government. Additionally, the research validated that the public value of e-government has a direct influence on the behavioral intention to adopt e-government services. The managerial and practical implications of these research findings on the public value of e-government and the acceptance of e-government services are dissected meticulously.

Evaluating e-governance through e-government: Practices and challenges of assessing the digitalisation of public governmental services.

Digitalisation and adaptation of governance to the digital age arguably transform the relationship between agents (i.e., public institutions) and clients (i.e., citizens) in policy-making. E-governance is the most widely used term for the result of this digital transformation in view of the changing nature of politics. This special issue zooms into digitalised public services by discussing practices and challenges in their provision, usage and evaluation. In doing so, it highlights interaction of e-governance (relationship among citizens, government, public and private actors notably in the context of digitalisation and innovation) and e-government (public services enabled by ICT). Contributions to the special issue identify challenges and pitfalls in implementing and evaluating e-governance by analysing different policy areas and geographical regions. The findings of the contributions suggest that factors of e-governance performance that potentially serve as evaluation criteria tend to be (overly) sensitive to context, i.e. policy area, systemic constellations, institutional settings, and administrative traditions in question. Consequently, attempts to evaluate e-governance, at least based on the empirical insight demonstrated in this special issue, remain limited to specific tools, instruments and contexts through which e-governance is operationalised and delivered (e.g., websites, projects and policy initiatives).

Effectiveness of strategy implementation and e-governance performance.

E-governance projects generally face many planning and implementation related challenges. It is well acknowledged that the complexities involved ask for adequate strategic planning before launching these projects. However, it is observed that many times even the well-planned e-governance projects may not perform as per expectations due to ineffective strategy implementation. This could perhaps be one of the causes of the unsatisfactory performance of e-governance projects, particularly in the context of developing countries, as reported by some studies. The article attempts to analyze the effectiveness of strategy implementation and performance of e-governance based on a study of a few agriculture related e-governance projects in India. Suitable measures and hypotheses have been conceptualized for studying the effectiveness of strategy implementation and e-governance performance. The empirical support is provided by a survey of operational level officers involved in the implementation of projects. The analysis has brought out four constituents of the construct 'effectiveness of strategy implementation' which has been revealed as a predictor of 'performance of e-governance'. The study findings are expected to contribute in terms of giving more thrust to identified factors of strategy implementation while planning for e-governance initiatives. The findings may also trigger corrective actions in several such ongoing projects which are struggling to deliver the intended outcomes. Overall, the research based interventions by practitioners may lead to better performance of e-governance projects for the benefit of society at large.

Analysing the importance of e-government in times of disruption: The case of public education in Rwanda during Covid-19 lockdown.

The world has been in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic since 2019. The Rwandan Government failed to establish e-government infrastructure to provide e-education during the lockdown (a.k.a Guma mu Rugo or Stay home), resulting in all children having to repeat the academic level they were in when the lockdown started in March 2020. The problems in Rwanda's education during Covid-19 are partly attributed to the government's ICT (a.k.a ikorana buhanga in Kinyarwanda) platform which does not prioritise e-education services, government's inability to provide infrastructures for e-government, and the lack of ICT equipment and skills. Research on the aspects of e-government and e-education in Rwanda is limited. Knowledge is scarce about what happened to public education in Rwanda during the lockdown. This study aimed to explore the effects of the lockdown on Rwanda's public education and how e-education could have helped provide public education. A desktop research method, involving collecting data from existing sources on e-government and the state of public education in Rwanda during Covid-19, was conducted. The results show that the lockdown has negatively affected public education because the country failed to provide e-education services. To address the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown and possible future lockdowns, the Government of Rwanda must establish an e-government infrastructure that provides e-education. It will also need to establish affordable infrastructure in rural areas where it does not exist.

Developing health sector websites assessment instrument: Challenges and pitfalls.

Electronic health services have been received with a tremendous interest world over. Patients consider hospital websites as highly important sources for health information and services. As a number of health institutes are carrying out projects to improve their websites, the need to design proper assessment means to measure whether they have achieved or are going to achieve their targets arises. Proper assessment of these websites gives us crucial information on the kind of changes needed to make them successful. To satisfy this need, an instrument called Health Sector Website Assessment Index (HSWAI) was developed, integrating the assessment of content, services, community interaction and technology features criteria, under a multi-indicator approach. Many of the considered indicators could be used to monitor progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, which is the United Nations health-focused goal. The purpose of this study is to highlight the challenges of developing and applying the assessment instrument for health institute websites. The paper covers key issues and challenges in conceiving, designing, developing, refining and validating HSWAI, and finally in applying it to a set of Portuguese health institutes. The results of this study could provide several insights and recommendations to e-Government assessment researchers and practitioners at the national and agency levels on the development of relative e-Government assessment tools. Studies such as the current one, apart from presenting applied solutions and relative lessons learned, are valuable to the conceptualization and application of present and future e-Government assessment initiatives, regardless of the sector where the effort occurs.

COVID-19 pandemic as a trigger for the acceleration of the cybernetic revolution, transition from e-government to e-state, and change in social relations.

Among many influences that the pandemic has and will have on society and the World System as a whole, one of the most important is the acceleration of the start of a new technological wave and a new technological paradigm in the near future. This impact is determined by the growing need for the development of a number of areas in medicine, bio- and nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and others, which we denote as "MANBRIC convergence". It is shown that the experience of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed that the final phase of the Cybernetic Revolution will begin in the 2030s at the intersection of a number of medical, bio, digital and several other technologies, with medical needs as an integrating link. Among the multitude of self-regulating systems in the economy and life (which, in our opinion, will flourish during the Cybernetic Revolution) socio-technical self-regulating systems (SSSs) will play a special role. Thus, COVID-19 becomes a powerful impetus not only in terms of accelerating technological development and approaching the final phase of the Cybernetic Revolution, but also in changing sociopolitical (and socio-administrative) relations in the forthcoming decades.

Examining the Impact of E-Government on Corporate Social Responsibility Performance: The Mediating Effect of Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, Corruption, and Information and Communication Technologies Development During the COVID era.

During the Covid-19 era, this research will explore and analyze the link between e-government and corporate social responsibility. In addition, mandatory corporate social responsibility, institutional quality, information and communication technology, and corruption as mediators will also be explored in this study. This research seeks to answer the issue of how e-government affects corporate social responsibility and how other mediating variables might influence this connection. Furthermore, this study developed a total of 13 hypotheses based on these questions, 4 of which have mediating effects. The theoretical underpinning for the proposed study paradigm is provided by stakeholder theory, which has been established based on prior literature. The general philosophy is positivism, and the research has a deductive nature. The information was gathered from 305 managers across four industries: information technology, online services, online education, and logistics and supply chain. Data was collected using a random convenience sampling approach. The Partial Least Square Sequential Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) research analysis approach was applied in this study for the analysis. The measurement step demonstrated that all constructs and indicators are valid and trustworthy enough to be utilized in the future. The results of the structural model evaluation revealed that e-government had a negative influence on corporate social responsibility, with three of the four mediating roles proving to be completely mediated. As a result, the government and relevant stakeholders should take these results into account when formulating e-government policies.

Evolução e tendência de estudos sobre governo eletrônico: mapeamento da área - de 1992 a 2018 / Evolución y tendencia de los estudios sobre gobierno electrónico: mapeo del área - de 1992 a 2018 / Evolution and trend of studies on e-government: mapping the area - from 1992 to 2018

Resumo O tema governo eletrônico (e-gov) aparece com frequência nos círculos acadêmicos, profissionais e políticos; consequentemente, o número de trabalhos publicados sobre a temática tem se ampliado. Nesse contexto, com o presente trabalho pretende-se analisar a evolução e a tendência dos estudos na área de governo eletrônico, com o objetivo de identificar a produção científica desta, por meio da análise de artigos científicos publicados em periódicos, indexados na base de dados Web of Science (WoS) de 1992 a 2018. Para tanto, foram analisados 1.516 artigos científicos publicados em periódicos por meio do software SciMAT. As análises possibilitaram identificar padrões como: frequência de estudos por ano, principais periódicos e autores no campo, assim como os trabalhos mais citados nos artigos constantes da amostra aqui considerada. Além disso, foi realizada uma análise de cocitação de palavras, que permitiu evidenciar os principais temas de pesquisa por período, bem como a evolução do campo de estudo. Os resultados indicam um crescimento das publicações sobre e-gov e o desenvolvimento de diferentes frentes de análise. Os principais temas que indicam tendências para estudos futuros voltados ao e-gov são: social media, technology acceptance model (TAM), transparency, acceptance e information system.

Resumen El tema del gobierno electrónico (e-gov) aparece con frecuencia en los círculos académicos, profesionales y políticos y, como consecuencia, el número de artículos sobre el tema ha ido en aumento. En este sentido, este texto se propone analizar la evolución y tendencia de los estudios en el área de gobierno electrónico, con el objetivo de identificar la producción científica en esta área, a partir del análisis de artículos científicos publicados en revistas indexadas en la Web de Science (WoS) de 1992 a 2018. Para ello, se analizaron 1.516 artículos científicos publicados en revistas utilizando el software SciMAT. Los análisis permitieron identificar patrones como frecuencia de estudios por año, principales revistas y autores en el campo, así como los trabajos más citados en los artículos de la muestra aquí considerada. Además, se realizó un análisis de cocitación de palabras, que permitió destacar los principales temas de investigación por período, así como la evolución del campo de estudio. Los resultados indican un aumento de publicaciones sobre e-gov y el desarrollo de diferentes frentes de análisis. Las redes sociales, el modelo de aceptación de la tecnología, la transparencia, la aceptación y el sistema de información son los principales temas que presentan tendencias para futuros estudios enfocados en e-gov.

Abstract The topic of electronic government (e-gov) frequently appears in academic, professional, and political circles. Consequently, the number of papers published on the subject has increased. This text analyzes the evolution and trend of studies on electronic government to identify scientific production based on the analysis of scientific articles published in journals, indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) from 1992 to 2018. We analyzed 1.516 scientific articles published in journals using the SciMAT software. We identified patterns such as frequency of studies per year, main journals and authors in the field, and the most cited works. Word citation analysis was also carried out, which made it possible to highlight the main research themes by period and the evolution of the field of study. The results indicate an increase in publications about e-gov and the development of different analysis fronts. Social media, technology acceptance model (TAM), transparency, acceptance, and information system are the main themes that indicate trends for future studies focused on e-gov.

Citizens' social media adoption in Paraguay / Adopción de redes sociales por parte de los ciudadanos en Paraguay / Adoção de redes sociais por cidadãos no Paraguai

Abstract This article aims to identify factors associated with the use of social media by Paraguayan citizens in their relationship with the government. We gathered data using a vignette survey, which recorded the responses to four public service problems and collected scores on perceived effectiveness, capability, social influence, trust in government, trust in social media infrastructure, and social media anxiety. Multivariate analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Perceived effectiveness, social influence, and trust in social media infrastructures were found to be significantly correlated with citizens' use of such media to report public service issues. On the other hand, capability, trust in government, and social media anxiety were not found to be associated with citizens' social media use. The results urge further theorization to disentangle how perceived effectiveness, social influence, and trust in social media infrastructures affect digital citizen engagement and participation and under what conditions proprietary social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter contribute to a vibrant democracy.

Resumen Este artículo tiene como objetivo identificar qué factores están asociados con el uso de las redes sociales por parte de los ciudadanos paraguayos en las relaciones ciudadano-gobierno. Recopilamos datos mediante una encuesta basada en técnica de viñeta en la que se registraron las respuestas a cuatro problemas de servicio público, además de puntuaciones sobre la eficacia percibida, la capacidad, la influencia social, la confianza en el Gobierno, la confianza en la infraestructura de las redes sociales y la ansiedad con relación a las redes sociales. Se utilizó un análisis multivariado para probar las hipótesis. Se encontró que hay una correlación entre la efectividad percibida, la influencia social y la confianza en las infraestructuras de las redes sociales con el uso de las redes sociales por parte de los ciudadanos para informar sobre problemas de servicio público. Por otro lado, no se encontró que la capacidad, la confianza en el Gobierno y la ansiedad con relación a las redes sociales estuvieran asociadas con el uso de las redes sociales por parte de los ciudadanos. Los resultados nos instan a teorizar y desentrañar aún más cómo la efectividad percibida, la influencia social y la confianza en las infraestructuras propietarias de las redes sociales afectan el compromiso y la participación digital de los ciudadanos, y bajo qué condiciones las plataformas propietarias de las redes sociales propietarias ‒como Facebook y Twitter‒ contribuyen a una democracia vibrante.

Resumo Este artigo tem como objetivo identificar os fatores associados ao uso das redes sociais pelos cidadãos paraguaios nas relações cidadão-governo. A coleta dos dados foi feita usando uma pesquisa com vinhetas na qual as respostas a quatro problemas com serviços públicos foram registrados. Também foram coletadas pontuações sobre a percepção de eficácia, capacidade, influência social, confiança no governo, confiança na infraestrutura das redes sociais e ansiedade em relação às redes sociais. Uma análise multivariada foi usada para testar as hipóteses. A percepção de eficácia, a influência social e a confiança nas infraestruturas das redes sociais estão significativamente correlacionadas com o uso que os cidadãos fazem das redes sociais para relatar problemas nos serviços públicos. Por outro lado, a capacidade, a confiança no governo e a ansiedade em relação às redes sociais não foram associadas ao uso das redes sociais pelos cidadãos. Os resultados nos incentivam a formular mais teorias e desvendar como a percepção de eficácia, a influência social e a confiança nas infraestruturas das redes sociais afetam o envolvimento e a participação digital do cidadão, e em que condições as plataformas proprietárias de redes sociais, como o Facebook e o Twitter, contribuem para uma democracia vibrante.