“How the Public Perceives Community Information Systems”

         This study looked at the comparison of if the government shares information well then people more likely to say that average citizens can make an impact in the government and also feel good about the town and its civic institutions.  

       This study took place over an eight month period in the three cities of Philadelphia, San Jose, and Macon. Participants were given a survey using multiple research methods. Studies in these three cities show that if people believe that their local government shares information well, they feel good about their town and civic institutions such as the government. Also, those who were consumers of the news media online were more likely to be involved and feel they have an impact where they live. Some of the results of the survey given to the participants were very surprising. According to the study, some of the results that were found included: broadband users are sometimes less satisfied than others with community life, social media like Facebook and Twitter are emerging as key parts of the civic landscape and mobile connectivity is beginning to affect people’s interactions with civic life, and those who believe they can impact their community are more likely to be engaged in civic activities and more satisfied with theirs. Overall, participants in the study were happy about the information they were given and how they were given their information.
       A major weakness in this study was that the survey and feedback was only given in three cities. I think that is too small of a sample to base results off of.  Also, the three cities were very similar in population and I think there should be several cities with different populations instead of just three. Only using three cities with smaller population limits the diverseness of the results and it might not even be reliable because of the narrowness of the populations tested.
       This study is very important because the results show that effective communication and information flow can have a huge impact on if people feel like they can make an impact where they live. It was very interesting to see the results of this study and that overall, people were happy with the sources from with they receive their information. I think it is important for journalists to try to put out easily understandable information that will reach the most amounts of people. From my own experience, I tend to skip reading something if I feel like I do not understand the language or information in it. If people feel like they can make an impact and feel important by the information they receive, then it should be very important for journalists to make news easily accessible and from multiple sources. People want to feel included and I think if the place in which a person lives provides a lot of information and sources of this information then people will feel more positively than if they did not have a way of finding out information on what is going on around them.