Institutional Communication for young people in “Empty Spain”? The
mobile bid in the demographic context of Castilla y León
¿Comunicación institucional para jóvenes en la España vaciada? La apuesta
móvil en el contexto demográco de Castilla y León
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nº 36, pp. 341-358
| 341
January-June of 2023
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
How to cite this article:
Quevedo-Redondo, R. and Gómez García, S. (2023). Institutional Communication for young people in “Empty Spain”? e mobile bid in the
demographic context of Castilla y León.
Doxa Comunicación
, 36, pp. 341-358.
https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n36a1708
Raquel Quevedo-Redondo.
Researcher and Lecturer in the Journalism degree at Valladolid University (UVa), where
she is currently coordinating the Area. In 2018, professor Quevedo Redondo nished her doctoral thesis after obtaining
a grant from University Teacher Training (FPU). ACOP awarded her “nalist” for the III Prize for the best doctoral
dissertation on Political Communication. She is currently combining teaching with participating in research projects
such as “
Politainment ante la fragmentación mediática: Desintermediación, ‘engagement’ y polarización
” (
Referencia
PID2020-114193RB-I00), funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. Her main lines of research focus on the
feminisation of politics and its application to communication and the study of the various forms of politainment.
University of Valladolid, Spain
[email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-6219-3237
Salvador Gómez-García.
European PhD in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid. Professor in the
Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities at Valladolid University. Lead Researcher of the Project “
Politainment
ante la
fragmentación mediática: Desintermediación, ‘engagement’ y polarización
” (Reference PID2020-114193RB-I00), funded
by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. His main lines of research include both media history and interactive digital
narratives. He is currently undertaking a research stay at the Complutense University of Madrid with the project
LÚDICO
(
Political Ludication: Communication and digital culture
) within the programme for the requalication of university
professors funded by the Ministry of Universities and the University of Valladolid (2022-2024).
University of Valladolid, Spain
[email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-5126-6464
Abstract:
is research addresses the current state of institutional
communication through mobile applications, examining the scope of
their implementation and dening their characteristics in a specic
socio-demographic context: Castilla y León (Spain). We analysed a
total of 258 apps to identify the factors that lead a municipality in this
region to have its application to determine the extent to which these
resources are used and the prevailing developer type. Ultimately, we
want to answer the question of whether young people in Castilla y León
Resumen:
Esta investigación aborda el estado actual de la comunicación institu
-
cional a través de las aplicaciones móviles, atendiendo al alcance de su
implantación y a sus características denitorias en un particular con
-
texto sociodemográco: el de Castilla y León (España). El análisis de un
total de 258 apps se dirige a identicar los factores que propician que
un municipio de esta región cuente con una aplicación propia, conocer
la cantidad de uso que tienen estos recursos y averiguar cuál es el tipo
preeminente de desarrollador. En último término se anhela responder
Received: 01/06/2022 - Accepted: 23/09/2022 - Early access: 30/09/2022 - Published: 01/01/2023
Recibido: 01/06/2022 - Aceptado: 23/09/2022 - En edición: 30/09/2022 - Publicado:
01/01/2023
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1. Introduction
One out of four residents in
Castilla y León
are over 65, according to the data from the census compiled by the National
Institute of Statistics in 2022 (INE). Twenty six point one percent of Castilian and Leoneses are over retirement age compared
to 19.97% of the average in Spain. erefore the nine provinces in the region make up an objectively ageing population,
where demographic evolution has become a strategic priority. In this respect, the “Agenda for the Population 2010-2020”
has dedicated the last decade to actions targeted at social collectives key to achieving greater demographic vitality. Young
people, families and emigrants are at the core of this initiative, populations who are seeking a suitable place to live and build
their future (Vidal-Domínguez and Fernández-Portela, 2020). Men and women aged 15- 34 (dened as “young people” by
the Institute of Youth) play a fundamental role in the regions and autonomies, where cities aim to change the trend in the
census in the short-medium term. Consequently, it is essential to create job opportunities and for political leaders and public
institutions to connect with specic audiences. is calls for new ways to communicate using specic language codes through
strategies adapted to the audience’s needs.
Appearances matter in politics (Blakeley, 2016) and the 21st-century voter not only wants to feel heard but also understood.
e commitment to communication 2.0 and the mobile phone application ecosystem (hereinafter, apps) is comprehensible,
as their use is increasing at a governmental level (Monteserín-Leiva, 2014; Gómez-García et al., 2019; Navarro-Sierra and
Quevedo-Redondo, 2020). However, at times the app creators only want to have a presence on the internet, neglecting a
fundamental aspect: the content (Quevedo-Redondo et al., 2021).
Political and institutional communication in autonomous communities such as Castilla y León mainly focuses on connecting
with older voters through interviews, press conferences or releases from traditional media (press, radio and television).
However, recent studies demonstrate that increasingly more municipalities in Castilla y León have apps connected to their
cities (Alvarez, 2021). Consequently, apps are now “institutions face of good or bad modernisation or innovation strategies”
(De la Hera Conde-Pumpido, 2009:1). ey are sometimes connected to the idea of smart cities in Spain (Barceló-Ugarte, 2017).
Indeed, the candidates for the presidency of the 2022 council elections in the Castilla y León election year (Alfonso Fernández
Mañueco –
P.P
.–, Luis Tudanca –
PSOE
–, Francisco Igea –
Ciudadanos
–, Pablo Fernández –
Podemos
– and Juan García-Gallardo
(the potential target group of app developers) can take advantage of the
resources made available to them or whether those who promote tools
under the institutional seal do so to avoid unfavourable comparisons
with neighbouring communities in the ecosystem we are addressing.
Keywords
:
Institutional communication; young people; mobile applications;
municipalities;
Castilla y León
.
a la pregunta sobre si los jóvenes castellanos y leoneses (público poten
-
cial de los creadores de apps) pueden sacar partido a los recursos que se
les brindan o si, simplemente, quienes impulsan las herramientas bajo
el sello institucional lo hacen para evitar la comparación negativa con
municipios cercanos que sí tienen presencia en el ecosistema al que nos
aproximamos.
Palabras clave:
Comunicación institucional; jóvenes; aplicaciones móviles; ayunta
-
mientos; Castilla y León.
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–
Vox
–) have devoted part of their aggressive election campaign to acknowledging young people and the self-employed in rural
areas more. is population is calling for assistance so as not to be forced to leave their villages.
Politicians’ election speeches show that they are not oblivious to needed incentives for young people that would prevent
an exodus and depopulation. ey also highlight the importance of reaching 2248 municipalities in the nine provinces and
connecting in a more personalised way adapted to the times.
erefore, the rst critical step would be to create apps providing local councils’ service information and conveying popular
sentiment about the Area’s most pertinent problems and needs. is research is based on this proposal. e following research
questions qualify as a basis for determining the extent of the shortcomings in this sense:
Q1
1:
What territories in Castilla y León had their own apps in the period before the elections (i.e., in 2021)? In those that did,
is there a relationship between the number of young people in the municipality’s census and the increased use of mobile
apps, or are other factors at play?
QI
2:
Regarding services provided to users by institutional applications, are micro-segmentation criteria applied by age
when creating content, or is the trend to follow a sole measure of usefulness for all citizens?
We aim to answer these questions and to lay the groundwork for opening the discussion on whether young people in Castilla y
León can make the most of apps. We also seek to determine whether those promoting the tools under an institutional seal are
simply doing so to avoid being compared negatively with nearby municipalities not a part of the ecosystem described above.
2. eoretical framework
is research addresses issues as diverse as depopulation in Spain, communication targeted at dierent age groups, the use of
new narratives and the exploitation of so-called “plataformisation” (García et al. 2021), and the study of public communication
through new media. We propose an integrative framework to provide the necessary elements to understand the communicative
role of institutional apps in the socio-demographic context of Castilla y León.
Firstly, youth plays an indisputable role in the prevailing consumption in today’s society, which leads to the interest in
studying communication in dierent social environments. In any case, the lack of academic works on local councils’ new
institutional communication forms is not representative of this interest. erefore, it can be argued that this type of research is
relatively unexplored, perhaps because institutional communication has a variety of terminology that somewhat complicates
its study. In this sense, references with names as diverse as “administrative information, “organisational communication”,
and “institutional advertising” are found in manuals and scientic articles, among other combinations. Regardless of the
terminology used, Núñez-Manzano (2017) exemplies other authors’ sentiments describing the sphere as seeking to bring
an organisation closer to its audience, improving audience’s perception of it, in order to ensure the organisation’s prosperity.
Consequently, its raison d’être is to manage the dialogue between institutions and society and, more specically, between
the institution and its external audience. Recently, communication has shifted its focus from the organisation’s objectives to
the audience’s. In other words, “the axis of gravity of communication management shifts, since it is no longer based on the
organisation’s needs but individuals attitudes and behaviours” (Costa-Sánchez, Míguez and Túñez-López, 2018, p. 922).
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Despite the variety of terms referring to public institutional communication, there is a consensus on its denition as “two-
way communicative-relational interaction established between the Government and citizens through messages endowed
with heterogeneous meanings (as the object of communication) through interpersonal, collective, mass and telematic
media (Campillo-Alhama, 2008, p. 549). e main dierence between public and business communication is based on the
former’s dual purpose. Although both types of institutions (public and private) aim to improve their image in the public eye,
governments want to meet the population’s needs. In other words, local councils intend to demonstrate that they are at the
service of the citizen. Citizens must perceive this (Almansa-Martínez, 2008) so that communication originating from town
councils is not “an unimportant issue” but instead is a strategic element to improve the institution’s image if managed correctly
(Núñez-Manzano, 2017, p. 88). Communication must foster relations with citizens and reinforce their image of institutions.
e objective is to reach a consensus on public management and for citizens to feel “informed of all administrative actions and
initiatives that may aect their status as administrators” (Campillo-Alhama, 2010, p. 47).
When communication is inecient, men and women may not value the local council’s proper action, which could deteriorate
relations with local leaders. Costa (cited in Núñez-Manzano, 2017) states that the absence or lack in public communication
entails the risk that “good management is not valued suciently because it has not been explained”. Even if the municipality
oers good products and services; the leaders isolate themselves from citizens. is would be very detrimental, and according
to Monteserín-Leiva (2014, “citizen’s opinion and involvement are essential to optimising the available resources” (p. 392) so
that communication fulls dual purpose: to be useful for citizens and governments, combining both interlocutors to dene
themselves.
Nowadays, bi-directionality is more urgent than ever because of institutional and social development, as governments were
once “autocratic, isolated and detached from social reality” but are now an entity that “adapts to the transformations happening
around it” (Núñez-Manzano, 2017, p. 77). Indeed, we should refer to Patricia Monteserín’s study from 2014 on government
communication in Castilla y León, which revealed that administrative services were not implemented much, explaining why
impersonal and/or inecient relations between governors and governed are often associated with a long delay in responses.
2.1. e shift to mobiles in public communication
Public institutional communication via mobile applications is the most signicant aspect of this research. Studying apps is
of interest since it is assumed that this tool can build communities of individuals with shared interests or needs (Holmen et
al., 2017). Furthermore, boosting these communities’ commitment and motivation (Kim, Lin and Sung, 2013). ey inuence
public opinion by contributing to “changing the information and entertainment ecosystem” (Planells de la Maza, 2020, p. 17).
Likewise, in terms of providing services to citizens, one of the most signicant advantages of an application for managing
public communication is its ability to hamper most users’ reluctance to engage in dialogue with local councils through social
networks, provided that they use platforms responsibly and write content that “contribute to the process” (Suárez-Álvarez,
2021, p. 16).
Another advantage for institutions that have their own app is their ability to minimise problems arising from the unqualied
use of council websites that may have become obsolete over time (Muñoz and Hernández, 2022). is is relevant if we are to
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consider Castilla y León’s ageing population; as Xavier Peytibi points out (2016, p. 35), citizens should have “simple tools”
(user-friendly ones for people of any age and with any education) to nd out what is happening on the streets, complain when
necessary and “help their council to improve things”. A proposal such as the ones mentioned above means exploring the
degree to which mobile applications are used and consumed by dierent generations and determining their usefulness and
user-friendliness as keys to their success (Fernández-Lores, Marquez and Villaverde, 2021).
3. Methodology
is research takes Suárez-Álvarez’s (2021) study as a reference on institutional communication through mobile applications
in municipalities in Castilla y León to ll the gap the work does not concerning the specic attention app developers pay to the
public that tends better to manage the resources from mobile technology and new tools: young people. For this purpose, we
have analysed direct data collection on institutional communication apps in Castilla y León. We have reected on the type of
content that most attracts men and women under 35 in the demographic context in the European Union’s largest community.
e qualitative aspect of the analytical work is of specic interest since “as long as there is only an uncritical reproduction of
gures from any source without assessing their methodological quality, the barrier of conventional journalism- and research-
will not have been crossed” (Dader and Fernández, 1993, p. 101). Regarding the data collection process for this article, apps
from Ávila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid and Zamora, whose content is directly connected
to institutional communication, were studied. e sample focuses on the apps on the virtual Android Store, Google Play,
as it is the prevailing operating system in Spain (Statista, 2022). We combine the name of each municipality with Boolean
operators and keywords for this research, such as
“informa”, “información”, “communicación institucional”, “ayuntamiento”,
or
consistorio”.
is process was carried out with all 2248 municipalities in Castilla y León; 302 apps related to 276 of them were
detected. Apps were excluded if they had access errors to the content during the sample screening, and it was veried that the
error persisted regardless of the Android version. Subsequently, those that did not contain any information or institutional
communication and had no activity since 2020 were excluded after each app was reviewed and downloaded. ose whose
content did not include updatable information were also omitted (especially apps solely related to tourism). us, the nal
sample (see Annex) comprised 258 mobile apps corresponding to 250 municipalities developed by 48 dierent developers,
created on 13 November, a year before the elections were held in the autonomous region presided over by Alfonso Fernández
Mañueco (13 February 2021).
Regarding the template designed for the analysis, the elds were divided into six blocks with dierent variables. is distribution
comes from the models developed by previous investigations specifying the other units of study used (Gómez-García et al.,
2019; Quevedo-Redondo et al., 2021; Fernández-Lores et al., 2021):
–
e 1st Block is dedicated to the app’s descriptive data to record its name and the municipality to which it is linked.
–
e 2nd Block refers to the features and general characteristics of the municipality and app to specify which of the nine
provinces the territory corresponds to and the number of inhabitants registered in it according to the National Institute
of Statistics, and the date of the rst and last publication/update on the application (information available on Play Store).
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–
e 3rd Block refers to the quantitative use of the app, including information on the number of downloads and an average
number of days between publications.
–
e 4th Block refers to the qualitative use of the application, which includes information on the user’s average rating on
the online store Google Play, the number of user comments on Google Play and the type of comments. is construct is
evaluated
quantitatively
(based on the number of stars the app receives on average) and qualitatively: positive comments
(those praising the app’s services or highlighting its strengths), negative (those focusing on its limitations or questioning
its usefulness) or neutral (those addressing other issues not directly linked to the app). We must also add the variable re
-
garding information ow (one-unidirectional, bidirectional or multi-directional).
–
e 5th Block refers to the developers who created the app and their prole (institutional, commercial or independent/
private developer)
–
e 6th Block was created to identify whether or not content is specically aimed at young people as their target audience
and the primary users of technologies.
ere is also a space dedicated to collecting noteworthy qualitative observations that conrmed the absence of electoral
contents or were linked to specic political parties (at least directly).
4. Results
e rst point of interest from the analysis of mobile applications concerns the dierentiation between municipalities with
an app for institutional communication and those that do not. In this sense, one might believe that the number of inhabitants
determines whether a municipality has its own app. Still, the whole range of the population of the Castilian and Leonese
municipalities was divided (from 44 inhabitants in the
Riofrio de Riaza
census to 176, 418 in Burgos) into twenty sections that
vary according to the number of registered inhabitants, however, this is not always a decisive factor.
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Graph 1. Relationship between population range and percentages of municipalities with an app
5º Bloque referido a los desarrolladores, para señalar quién se ha ocupado de crear
la
app
objeto de estudio y cuál es su perfil (desarrollador institucional, comercial o
particular/independiente).
6º
Finalmente, se cre
ó
un bloque destinado a identificar la existencia o no de
contenidos específicamente dirigidos a jóvenes como principal público usuario de
las nuevas tecnologías.
A estos bloques cabe sumar un espacio dedicado a recoger observaciones reseñables de
tipo cualitativo que ha permitido confirmar la ausencia de contenidos de tipo electoralista
o vinculado a partidos políticos concretos (al menos, de forma
directa).
4. Resultados
El primer punto de interés que
resulta
del análisis de aplicaciones móviles tiene que ver
con la diferenciación entre los municipios que tienen una
app
dedicada a la comunicación
in
stitucional y los que carecen de ella. En este sentido cabría pensar que el número de
habitantes es un factor determinante para que un municipio cuente con una aplicación
propia, pero al dividir el rango absoluto de población de los municipios castellanos y
leoneses (desde los 44 habitantes censados en Riofrío de Riaza hasta los 176.418 de
Burgos) en veinte tramos que varían/aumentan con la cantidad de censados se observa
que éste no tiene por qué ser siempre un factor de
cisivo.
Gráfico I. Relación entre rango de población y porcentaje de municipios con
app
Fuente: adaptación de
Suárez-
Álvarez (2021)
De acuerdo con lo que refleja el gráfico
1
, la tendencia al alza en el porcentaje de
municipios con
app
propia según aumentan los habitantes censados no siempre responde
a un
incremento
lineal
. Como quiera que sea, se aprecia que entre las localidades con
menos de 200 habitantes sólo un 3,5% da el salto al ecosistema de los dispositivos
móviles.
Este
porcentaje
aumenta hasta el 9,09% entre los 200 y 400 censados y continúa
creciendo regularmente hasta el 40% que se desprende de los concejos con población
Source: adapted from Suárez-Álvarez (2021)
As shown in graph 1, the upward trend in the percentage of municipalities with their own apps does not always correspond to
a linear increase in the population. In any case, only 3.5% of the towns with less than 200 inhabitants form a part of the mobile