Summer 1997
The Public Agenda
Tallahassee, FL
On Nov. 14, 1994, more than 300 Tallahassee citizens crowded the galleries and chamber of the Houses of Representatives at the Florida state capitol to launch “The Public Agenda” project’s first Community Dialogue. The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper and WCTV, the CBS affiliate, helped publicize and cover the effort as a civic journalism partnership.
The purpose of “The Public Agenda” was to engage the community in discussions on key issues and to monitor at regular intervals community awareness and participation. Over the next three years more than 15 discussion groups met regularly to discuss subjects ranging from crime to race relations. More than 1,000 people were exposed to the techniques of deliberative discussion.
Earlier this year, the effort was handed off to the community — but not without some key feedback that indicated the deliberative discussion/civic journalism initiative made some impact.
“The Public Agenda,” after three years, “has gained modest community awareness and limited community participation; however, it appears to have contributed to positive changes in community attitudes and behavior” according to a final survey of respondents conducted earlier this year.
The survey was done by Kerr & Downs Research, of Tallahassee, to assess community reaction and changes in community attitudes. Kerr & Downs surveyed 353 randomly selected adults by telephone with a sampling error of plus or minus 5.2 percent. Responses were compared to surveys in 1994 and 1995.
About one-third of all Tallahasseeans said they were aware of “The Public Agenda” (38% in the winter of 1997 vs. 33% in spring of 1995.) Participation in the project appears to have doubled, to 7% of respondents in 1997 vs. 3% in 1995.
More than half of the respondents said the project was very effective to somewhat effective in getting people to discuss community concerns, making people feel they have a voice, and identifying solutions for community problems.
And race relations appeared to be calmer in 1997 with only 15% claiming there was a “great deal” of tension between races vs. 23 percent in 1995.
According to other survey highlights:
Residents in 1997 were more likely to see the community pulling together and less likely to be at odds than in 1994 and 1995.
- By 1997 more Tallahasseeans strongly agreed that people could make a difference on important issues by taking an active role in their community than in previous surveys.
- Respondents in 1997 showed more willingness to listen and work toward compromise; fewer saw community discussions as heated exchanges with neither able to see the other’s point of view.
- Traffic and roads supplanted crime as the top concern and the percentage of respondents concerned about traffic and roads increased significantly to 65% vs. 52% three years ago. The percentage concerned about crime dropped to 38% from 56% over the three years of the project.