Judy is a Senior
Fellow in Government Ethics, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at
Santa Clara University whose focus is helping people disseminate the
information provided to make better decisions.
She shares the power of ethics and transparency in government
agencies and the need for civil engagement. A nice example she gave was
around the San Jose, CA city government offices opening up their
calendars to the public to show when they were meeting, who they are
meeting with and why they were meeting - all in an attempt to educate
the public on what was happening in their local community and how
resources were being spent. It is bringing more people to the town
halls and getting the community better engaged.
In her eyes, ‘providing information to the public is not a luxury -
it is a necessity’ and is critical to building and sustaining healthy
communities.
Judy suggests more local news needs to be produced, using more
friendly and easy to understand language. Journalists should have an
understanding of how the government works, and the channels we feed
news through.
As content and usability vary greatly from county to county (some use
webcasts that are archived, others use blogs, many do nothing) these
differences need to be addressedto ensure news is received by those
that need it and they continue to find ways to engage the younger
generation to ensure longevity of the media outlets and the strength of
the community.
