Getting the Public Back into Public Hearings

“Something to Talk About” can run as a horizontal or vertical graphic. It can stand alone or accompany a story.

“The public hearing is a great American tradition, firmly rooted in the notion that average folks ought to have a voice amid the policy-making,” Wichita Eagle editor Rick Thames told his readers last month.

“Unfortunately it may also be a tradition in decline.”

“Nobody knows this better than journalists,” Thames wrote. Sometimes journalists outnumber citizens in the hearing room. At other times, special-interest groups are the public’s only representatives.

“How did a concept so sacred and dear to democracy end up so empty and seemingly insignificant?” he asked.

Is it apathy? Inconvenience? Fear? Or a sense of futility that dampens public input?

Or, he wrote, does the media fail to communicate the significance of a proposed change to people’s lives?

The Eagle in May launched a six-month experiment to try to change all that: an informational graphic designed to alert readers to a public hearing, highlight the potential impact, report who might be affected, and encourage comment.

It’s called “Something to Talk About.”

“Our goal is to try to create pathways for people to be more-involved citizens,” said Dion Lefler, The Eagle’s day news editor, who spearheaded the design. Readers are invited to attend the hearing, call in their comments, or e-mail The Eagle.

“We wanted to reach across the spectrum for people to be involved… whatever they are comfortable with, we wanted to create a pathway for them to do that.”

The first graphic, published Sunday, May 17, invited reader input on who should run a new trash transfer site to be opened after a local landfill closes. Should it be a public utility or a private enterprise?

The use of a graphic “gives it immediacy,” Lefler said. “It gives the sort of feeling of something different. We are doing something different here: We are asking people to get involved rather than put out information and say, ‘Do with it what you will’.”

The box is designed with a photo or other graphic element so that it can stand alone, or accompany a story. It can be laid out vertically or horizontally.

The initial box met with high approval from city officials and it ranked among the top things called up on The Eagle’s web site – a good response, Lefler said, considering it ran on River Festival Sunday, the town’s biggest event of the year.

Lefler expects some refinements and he invites suggestions. Call him at 316-268-6527 or e-mail dlefler@ wichitaeagle.com.