Visualizing changes to US federal environmental agency websites, 2016-2020.

ABSTRACT: Websites have become the primary means by which the US federal government communicates about its operations and presents information for public consumption. However, the alteration or removal of critical information from these sites is often entirely legal and done without the public's awareness. Relative to paper records, websites enable governments to shape public understanding in quick, scalable, and permissible ways. During the Trump administration, website changes indicative of climate denial prompted civil society organizations to develop tools for tracking online government information sources. We in the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) illustrate how five data visualization techniques can be used to document and analyze changes to government websites. We examine a

SUBMITTER: Nost E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7906373 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature