Whats wrong with the way government communicates now to its citizens?
(return to the top of this page) Government has many public information and public relations personnel to communicate information to the public. But they are usually dependent upon the mass media to assist. Newspapers and television, however, are private enterprises and like any business, they have to provide what their customers want or else they won’t survive. “News” has come to be defined as the unusual and often the bad news of wars, disease, murder, rapes, calamity etc. On the other hand the more mundane but perhaps equally important affairs of community and civilization building provided by the releases of governments is often considered fortunate to get anything published even if only on the back page or late telecast. The result is that information frequently comes to citizens piecemeal from the news media. Thus, the public’s agenda is nearly always controlled by the mass news media governed by economic factors and not always easily accessible by those elected. For these reason
