What Public Information Should Government Agencies Publish? A Comparison of Controversial Web-Based Government Information

Abstract

This paper develops a framework to assess the public information provided on program level government agency Websites. The framework incorporates three views of government information obligations stemming from different assumptions about citizen roles in a democracy: the private citizen view, the attentive citizen view, and the deliberative citizen view. The framework is employed to assess state Websites containing controversial policy information about chronic wasting disease, a disease effecting deer and elk in numerous U.S. states and Canada. Using the framework as a guide, the paper considers what information agencies should provide given the three different views of government information obligations. The paper then outlines the costs and benefits of fulfilling each view of government information obligations including issues of limited resources, perceived openness and credibility, press coverage, and policy making control.