A plan to change the world: My manifesto, sent to the city clerk of a small city with an ignorant citizenry

How does the City of ****** do its website, who runs its content and who does media relations/public relations for the municipality? Who manages social media? … How does the governing body of the city interact, inform and communicate with its citizen body?

I’m only asking because I just moved here, and I am trying to learn how this city works, specifically dealing with public information and things of that nature. I worked for the City of ******* for quite a while, and in the eight or nine months I was there developed some neat and worthy methods of communication that allowed the citizens to lean on that city for information, instead of it only coming from places like the media and citizen gossip and chatter over the social media wires.

As an example, let’s use this petition to change the form of government here. It seems the issue has a lot of steam, and the (majority of the) public seems to believe it would be a good move to go from the more modern (and usually more effective, efficient and safer) council-manager form of municipal government to the more antiquated (less accountable) form, called statutory aldermanic. ***** is statutory aldermanic, which is where I moved from, so I have a bit of insight into this issue.

We did a survey (on the website of the newspaper I work at), and it garnered thousands of votes. Over 65% said ‘Yes’ to changing the form of government. I don’t understand how that could be, other than many of the answers or signatures on the petition are put there based on little knowledge of what that actually means.

Again, this is all hypothetical and an example.

As an information agent, I see moments like this as a great opportunity the City of ***** could have to run an information campaign, teaching its citizens a) what the difference in those types of government forms are, b) how it may effect ****** in the future, and c) where citizens can go to learn more.

More often than not, over the last about decade I’ve been a professional journalist and media guy, I find under the cloud of non-information or ignorance within a citizenry, everyone saying their government is corrupt and those running it are doing to to pad their pockets. I hear that daily here in ******, and the negative comments are ALWAYS made with the person not really knowing much, as if they don’t know they are speaking in ignorance. What’s worse, is the fact that they probably think they are speaking as if informed.

Sure, some government officials are corrupt, but in reality, the City of ****** is not about the people in the government, it’s about the way in which the system governs.

That said, lifting that veil of the unknown with good information can greatly effect the people being governed and cause a very active and involved citizenry to develop. That’s how cities get better, and that’s how governments get better.

Keep in mind, I am not talking about the news. Yes, I could write articles and they be published in the ****** News Leader, but this is not about news; it’s about the day-to-day grind of life being a government that wants what is best for its citizens. The City of ****** has the chance to control the narrative, provide information to its citizens that is factual and pure about projects, the spending of tax dollars, and the efforts of said government to increase the quality of life for those citizens, and do so in a way that helps to move forward the goals of the governing body and its leaders.

People do not seek to learn, most of the time, and certainly not about municipal government and how it works. They hear things from others, see comments on social media and/or read things in the newspaper and base an opinion that could actually be spread and spread and hurt the efforts of any government.

The only way to beat the unfortunate opponents of non-truth and its playmate, ignorance, is by being the source of the information.

I am sending all of this because I just want to learn and talk. I am NOT selling anything, nor would I bother you with that. I’m just a journalist that has big dreams and a lot of skills in a lot of areas that a lot of people don’t want to have to mess with.

So, someday I want to have a company (The Content Creation Company, perhaps) that provides professional services in these areas, as well as professional individuals that can spend time with the staff of rural cities to learn the best way to communicate with its people and what is most important to be communicated. This can be done no matter what the budget is, and, honestly, I think this idea I have may be a non-profit entity or membership thing. I don’t know. That’s why I’m sending all this. This city is a perfect example, and I hope not to bother you — just wanted to get your professional input because you know more than most about this city’s workings and what is going on here.

I have worked in so many rural communities, and in every one of those places, this seems to be the problem — a disgruntled people, griping about their corrupt city government. As a journalist, I see both sides, and the corruption angle is rarely true and most issues are caused by negligence due to ignorance, which is not corruption or fraudulent, it’s just simply unfortunate. It’s also avoidable.

The most important thing in the world to me is changing this. If you live in a large city (that has the money to pay salaries for professionals to constantly be creating and releasing information) you get great communication and even great news and journalism (insomuch that it is high quality and done so by professionals). However, and this is the most important thing, most people that choose to live and work in rural areas and small cities have to just deal with what is provided (usually done so as a secondary task of a clerical person or employee within the governing body’s staff) or seek it out themselves (learning and researching fairly complex issues, which rarely is done by a citizen or two and never done by the majority).

This is NOT because the governing body (the City of Okemah, for example) is trying to hide things from its citizens. It’s because doing that kind of stuff well, with integrity and in a way that makes the people want to consume it (whether by way of blog-style news posts on the city’s website, social media posts, video, audio, photos, etc.) is extremely expensive. Larger cities have larger budgets, thus have the resources to maintain a staff position dedicated to this work, a professional (usually college-degreed) that is Public Relations. That’s great, but every city or governing body over a group of people, no mater what size, should have that. It is the responsibility of the government, but when there is only so much revenue, the governing body has its hands tied and must figure how to do this things internally. it turns into a sad reality for most rural areas because doing so internally usually means the idea of public relations and providing information to citizens gets put on the back burner, and when its done, if done at all, it’s in a way to just get it out there however possible and with the least amount of resources expended.

Both in rural-area government and in rural-area journalism (an area that also extremely suffers in this area, providing inadequate and low-quality reporting because of exactly the same reasons), I want to change this. I at least want to start a change. Information is the MOST IMPORTANT thing in the world. An ignorant voting body is not good for anyone in any area. Progress and getting better is always based on good information, and all that is happening is the slowing of progress and improvement across the nation.

I will change it. I did so in the last city I lived, in which I just moved here from (as a freelance contract media guy, on top of several other contracts like the News Leader), and it is still extremely different today with a more informed public … Sure, they still say the government is corrupt or make bad comments, but the city now has a system that I developed that keeps working and runs like a machine.

I call myself a content creator. There is nothing I cannot create and do so professionally and in high-quality. People love pictures and love video. I specialize in both. But it’s not just the content, it’s about where it goes. The truth is, it goes every where — Facebook and social media being very powerful free digital ‘poster boards’ with the ability to tack up anything. The website is another important place. Then, you have ‘brick and mortar’ stuff (fliers, brochures, cards, events, etc.) All are so important, reaching different demographics of people in different ways, at different times. But the information (or content) doesn’t have to change.

Developing this, I call it a ‘Content Creation Campaign.’

Cities like this one and other rural communities should NOT have to rely on their (likely) short-staffed or mediocre newspaper to provide its citizens with pertinent information. The city should write the narrative and control the information, regardless of how it is publicized.

I think the only answer is for it to be done so contractually and by an entity that specializes in only this. Sure, hardly any city under 30,000 people can really afford a full-time, salaried PR person, but every city of more than a mere two people NEEDS it and should still have the ability to get good, high quality information and content out to its people.

Okay … I’m done.

When and if you have time, and it’s not a bother or an inconvenience, I would love to hear your input and how I may could talk to the city manager or council about this someday in a way to learn and grow. Sorry for that rant, but it’s important. I’m talking about something that could change the entire nation. There are so, so many people making up our population that live in rural communities and areas. They should all at least have access to high quality and good information and content, and every city or county government should have a way to create, have created for them at doable cost and provide high-quality PR work to its people about the daily goings-on, despite or without even discussing the amount of tax dollars that may take.

Thanks, and if this goes unanswered or responded to forever, that is completely fine and understandable, but I hope not because I know I can learn from you. I really do care, and I think I have some good ideas. I just am not naive enough to believe it’s a great idea until it is molded by people better and more knowledgeable than me. I hope to talk to you soon. Thank you.