Conference in Budapest, International Workshop on "Social Participation: Communication Challenges and Good Practices", 17th December 2014

1. Trust in public health systems: frames and
experienced paths in Emilia-Romagna
Workshop: Social Participation:
Communication Challenges
and Good Practices
Budapest, NUPS
12-17-2014
P. Lalli
Master in Public and Corporate Communication
Department of Political and Social Sciences
University of Bologna

2. P. Lalli
1: Shifting citizens…
Networked relationships and individualism
Our “world is oriented around looser, more fragmented
networks that provide on-demand succor”
It creates new affordances but requires new social skills
Pew Center’s and University of Toronto Net Lab hypothesis (2012)
People “need to develop new strategies for handling challenges
as they arise. (…) They must actively network to leverage the
human resources”
Meanwhile… Crisis of confidence in public organizations

3. P. Lalli
1: Shifting citizens…
Networked relationships and individualism
• The priority of skills is or not antidemocratic?
• The multitude is not the masses….
• The social organization appears as a multipolar living body
êêêê
New elites appear, basing their legitimacy on several dimensions
êêêê
Bloggers can hold against journalists, collectives develop Linux,
Wikipedia, or OpenStreetMap, new influencers on the social web allow
for a new agenda of information
There are a multitude of skills…
(Verdier 2014)

4. P. Lalli
2: Shifting from government to “governance”
At least two definitions of "governance":
a) decentralization and ”subsidiarity" based on
common "utility" among some actors
è market adjustment by private interests
(stakeholders as "interests bearing")
b) decentralization and " subsidiarity" in a social
process building shared meanings of actions
and mutual involvement
è "community" based on trust
(stakeholders as subjects committed in collective goals)

5. P. Lalli
2: Shifting from government to “governance”
Anyway, if the so-called “subsidiarity” is connected to
new forms of Welfare State as the administrative
decentralization and the engagement of citizens to
participate in public decisions
êêê
Could communication and information be
essential to enable the governance’s
process?

6. P. Lalli
3: Communication, innovation, democracy
ü The innovation in a democratic context comes from
normative frameworks that set out principles or values
ü Ongoing process that concerns:
Transparency - Open Data
Visibility
Information
Communication
Accountability

7. P. Lalli
Transparency and accountability
Transparency is coupled
with the duties of the
visibility and accountability
regarding public opinion
è The citizens’ right to
scrutinize the government
action
The purposes of body
control of visibility may
represent:
a) A fair distribution of
public knowledge
b) A marketing strategy
influencing both media
and citizens

8. P. Lalli
Participation vs. propaganda?
Development of activities and actors
devoted to publicity of the action of
government
Disappearance of the "propaganda" and the
emergence of “communication”
In a representative democracy “propaganda”
is discredited because it is connected to an
explicit goal of manipulation and consensus
(Ollivier-Yaniv 2009)

9. P. Lalli
INFORMATION and DATA = STRATEGIC RESOURCE
ê
NEED CONTROL, FRAMES AND MANAGEMENT FOR
DECISION PROCESSES AND EVALUATION
ê
a) TECHNOCRATIC VISION = PROFESSIONALS AS
VISIBILITY EXPERTS in the “multipolar society”
VERSUS
b) REFLEXIVE VISION = PROFESSIONALS AS
MORAL ENTREPRENEURS in the “multipolar society”
The perspective of a
“fair distribution of social knowledge”

10. P. Lalli
The new functions of information
è Public bodies provide data decisions-makers as a
basis for decision, and journalists or
“communicators” to ensure good frames of
information to citizens for public evaluation
è Public bodies directly provide data using new
media channels to ensure the transparency of the
decision making process for well informed
participating citizens
Transparency, frames, data

11. P. Lalli
è Quality of data
è Frames of data
è Required skills in understanding and handling data
è Competition in data use (private, instrumental…)
è Over-saturation of data (BIG DATA)
Difficulties

12. P. Lalli
è Absolute transparency is an illusion: governments
always choose what they want to communicate
è Transparency does not build confidence, but mistrust
è Open Data promises a more direct rapport with power,
but in fact creates a new technocracy (those that can
understand data)
è Close attention be paid to document the data itself (who
created it, when, why, etc.) in order to allow citizens to
criticize
(i.e. Rupert 2014)
Transparency and open data an illusion?

13. P. Lalli
è Data can been used to hurt us
è We cannot see or control all data
è Most people just want to be asked nicely, explained the rules,
simply and clearly and be given control
è Essentially, they want to trust
è TRUST IS THE NEW OIL
è Trust is produced by a promise made and kept over
è There seems to be a shortage of trust now, so its value is
soaring, particularly at the start of each day’s news cycle
(Aiken 2014)
Are data the new oil?

14. P. Lalli
May be opening data does not rely
on a value granted to "transparency”
The core concept can be
responsibility or accountability,
recognizing the dignity of the subject
that exercises its responsibilities
OPENING DATA & DEMOCRACY
“Society has the right to require of every public agent an account
of his administration”

15. P. Lalli
Many actors
potential
players(Verdier 2014)

16. P. Lalli
è The data are intellectual constructions
è The more accountability on the choices regarding
the construction of data, the more precision on the
implicit hypotheses are in order
è One just has to ask the right questions on the data
è Open Data appears to be more capable of
asking these right questions than other social
worlds (i.e. mass media)
Which questions to data?
(Verdier 2014)

17. P. Lalli
The Open Definition
The Open Definition sets out
principles that define “openness” in
relation to data and content
It makes precise the meaning of
“open” in the terms “open data”
and “open content” and ensures
q u a l i t y a n d e n c o u r a g e s
compatibility among different pools
of open material
“Open means anyone can freely
access, use, modify, and share for
any purpose”
(http://opendefinition.org/)
participation
participation

18. P. Lalli
1. Transparency as total access of information regarding the
organization and the action of public bodies, in order to
promote forms of control on the institutional functions and of
the use of public resources
2. The transparency (…) contribute to implement the democratic
principle and the constitutional principles of equality,
impartiality, good course, responsibility, efficacity and
efficiency in public resources, integrity and loyalty (…). It is a
guarantee condition of the individual and collective freedom
(…)
3. Art. 41: Obligation to publish in the internet site the “waiting
lists for health-care”
Italian Law n. 33 (2013) on publicity, transparency and diffusion
of information by the public administrative bodies

19. P. Lalli
A case study
(in coll. with V. Bazzarin)
The Department of Health-
care of Emilia Romagna
Region has a portal with 3
access options
- news
- services for citizens
- h e a l t h - c a r e g i v e r s
institutional area
http://www.saluter.it/
This Region has been one of the most efficient for its Regional Health-Care
System and one of the most participative among citizens and voters → 2014
political crisis of the Council, many inquiries carried by the Courts, and new
anticipated regional election → trust crisis → only 37,7% go to vote

20. P. Lalli
SISEPS and REPORTER
The 3 channels allows
to access the
information with
different levels inside
the information system
as well as the Open Data
area, called ReportER
http://www.saluter.it/siseps/reporter
Italian Law n. 33 (2013) on publicity, transparency and diffusion of information
by the public administrative bodies

21. P. Lalli

22. P. Lalli
The organizational framework
3 teams are involved in this
action that started in May
2014
Ø communication team
Ø statistical team
Ø @sanimov (innovation
team)
Since the beginning of
december 2014 when people
are operating joint they are
called the Open data staff

23. P. Lalli
Activities
The different teams of the open data staff would have to
- set up the “open data frame and agenda” (the release of new
data set)*
- connect to an international and national network
- promote the open knowledge, the use of this service and the
professional and civic participation
- talk with newsmakers and policy makers on how this data can
improve “transparency” or accountability as well as the
quality and the reliability of informations
* Meeting and debate with the leadership of the Department

24. P. Lalli
Observation of meetings
Through participant observation of
meetings and public events we can define 3
phases of this process:
- fear of the unknown → solved with a
set of common rules but not with a
common vision
- conflict to define roles → solved by the
intervention of the decision maker
- collaboration with caution → output is a
program of activities for the 2015

25. P. Lalli
Observations of meetings
Difficulty to publish a regional set of data
about the waiting lists → contingency of
anticipated regional council election and fear
of political use (communication office more
spokesman than citizen oriented)
Low participation in the site “Io partecipo”
after the Open Health Day
Double mistrust about open data becoming
more work for statisticians and more rating
lists for journalists
Through participant observation of meetings and public events we
identify 3 main issues

26. P. Lalli
Open questions
- How can the data become information?
Framing data for citizens can improve the quality of
data for the decision makers?
Are the actual rules able to ensure quality of data?
How can be promoted the participation in order
to involve many actors and new watchdog’s
roles?
Are there some groups who have the priority to
be informed and trained to use open data?
How can be identified the gatekeeper’s role in
this opening process?

27. P. Lalli
More: what’s about trust?
Think of trust as a brand → Organizations should ensure
consistency, competence and conscience of their everyday action
Efforts to promote ACCOUNTABILITY to improve citizen access to
reliable information and perceived satisfaction with care have to
be effective

28. P. Lalli
è To challenge the present crisis of confidence:
è Active listening
è Multipolar Access to information
è Integrated models of participation
è New forms of alliances
è New forms of accountability
Conclusions
Governance, competence and openness

29. P. Lalli
pina.lalli@unibo.it
Thank you - Köszönom
«Tell the truth and trust in the
people»
(Joseph
N.
Pew
Jr.)