Though it sounds like an oxymoron more often than naught, the rewards from government communicating honestly to the public are substantial and can help in the partnership that both must be involved in to render more value to that which both desire, the public good; of particular application to the Parkway.
Good government communication with the public through the media is the subject of this article.
An excerpt.
“Those of us who work in or with government know only too well the problems that can arise when journalists start paying attention to performance data from government. Declining performance, missed targets, and performance that is worse than peers are fodder for a nasty news story. Our instinct, therefore, is to fear the media and hope it will ignore our measurement efforts.
“Bad instinct. Instead of running from the media, we should run to it — but armed with data to get reporters to write articles that will help government tackle social, environmental, and economic problems. We should also think more strategically about other key audiences that can use government data to make better decisions to improve societal outcomes.
“Check your local paper. If it is like my mine, it carries several stories every day with data about problems that government agencies are trying to reduce. Some even report government successes. One day this month, for example, the lead story in my local paper reported the increase in state residents with healthcare coverage linked to the state health care reform law. On another page, there was a story about a new link between arsenic and diabetes, based on a "new analysis of government data," and another, again citing government data, reported racial disparities in the use of corporal punishment by schools. Yet another story reported the number of college students who died from drinking. Three editorials included data, while the front page of the metro section featured two maps showing obesity rates in every state from 1991 through 2007. Simply put, the paper was packed with stories using data gathered by government or nonprofit organizations.”
