| Communicating with Congress: How the Internet Has Changed Citizen Engagement |
introduction
The right to petition government for a redress of grievances is a cornerstone of democracy in the United States, and it - along with the right to vote - is the foundation on which civic participation is built and practiced. Since the founding of our country it has been a strongly held conviction that an active and engaged citizenry is imperative for a healthy democracy. However, when the Founders included this right in the First Amendment they never imagined something like the Internet, which has fundamentally transformed citizen participation. The Internet has provided promising new opportunities for citizens to access and share information, organize around issues, and communicate their views to their Members of Congress. Citizens are taking advantage of these opportunities in greater numbers than ever before. The demographics of the Internet increasingly mirror those of the country, though Internet users are still more likely than the general public to vote. [3] These people are flexing their political muscle in entirely new ways which have created both challenges and opportunities for Congress. Legislators have the opportunity to assess public opinion in ways not available just five years ago. Although the Internet offers Members of Congress new avenues to interact with their constituents and invite citizens to participate in the public policy process, the promise of the Internet for democratic dialogue has yet to be fully realized. In fact, congressional offices are still stymied by outdated technologies, frustrated by online grassroots advocacy tactics, and mired in paper-based communications practices. As the Internet has taken hold, many studies have identified how people are using it for campaign and election politics, organizing, and advocacy. However, little research has explored how the Internet is being used in the day-to-day interactions between citizens and their Members of Congress. What do people now want from these interactions with legislators? What and who motivates them to contact a Senator or Representative? What are effective means of communicating about what is happening in Congress? What do people want in response to their messages to Congress? The answers to these questions all have significant implications to Senators' and Representatives' communications practices, but there is minimal research to answer them. To fill the void and help congressional offices better understand the new communications environment, the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) commissioned Zogby International to conduct two surveys. The first was an extensive online survey to learn how Internet users who have and have not contacted a U.S. Senator or Representative access and perceive information from and about Congress. The second was a telephone survey which asked a shorter subset of the online questions. Through the two surveys, we gained valuable insight from more than 10,000 adult Americans about their interactions with Congress and their expectations and perceptions of those interactions. What we found is both encouraging and disheartening. It is encouraging because there seem to be significant opportunities for congressional offices to expand their online interactions with their constituents which will enhance Members' images, the image of Congress, and citizens' understanding of the democratic process. Our research shows that people want to hear from their Members of Congress, and their preferred means to do so is online. They are also seeking out information about Congress online, and they are looking both online and offline to the organizations they trust to help them navigate their understanding of, and opportunities to interact with, Congress. This is great news for congressional offices, but it has significant implications for offices that are still mired in the communications practices of the 20th Century. To seize these opportunities, congressional offices need not only to adapt to the technologies, but also to adopt the techniques of the Internet Age. The findings are also encouraging as they seem to show evidence of a resurgence in citizen engagement with Congress. The National Conference on Citizenship reported in the 2006 Civic Health Index that there has been an increase in citizens' expressing their political views since 1996.[4] This seems to be borne out by the rapid increase in the volume of messages to Congress over the past decade. Our research found that 44% of voting-age Americans had communicated in some way with a Senator or Representative in the past five years. While it has not yet been verified by other surveys, our data could have significant and exciting implications to democracy, not the least of which relate to the roles of the Internet and online grassroots advocacy campaigns in communications with Congress. What is disheartening is that people appear to feel disconnected from their Senators and Representatives. They do not think their Members of Congress are interested in what they have to say, nor do they think their Members try to keep them abreast of what they are doing in Congress. They also appear to doubt the trustworthiness of information from their Senators and Representatives, and they do not consider it all that informative. Perhaps partly as a result, people are relying on the organizations they trust to keep them apprised of what is happening in Congress and to help them communicate with Members. In fact, our research indicates that interest groups are playing a significant role between Members of Congress and the people they represent by providing citizens with information about Congress and facilitating communications with Members. Mistrust does not only exist on the citizens' side of the dialogue. Our research with congressional staff found a lack of trust in some communications from citizens. Congressional staff are particularly skeptical of identical form advocacy campaigns, which they doubt have been generated with the knowledge and approval of the citizens whose names are on them. In fact, it was this mistrust, and the sense of pervasive frustration among congressional staffers about the sheer volume and quality of the messages they were receiving, that originally led CMF to initiate our Communicating with Congress project. The goal of the Communicating with Congress project is to improve interactions between Congress and the citizens it represents. To do this, CMF realized it was necessary to foster a better understanding on both sides of the communications equation and to facilitate collaboration among the stakeholders to develop a mutually agreeable solution. To this end, CMF has been working with Congress, the public affairs community, technology vendors, good government organizations, and others. We have been studying the problems that exist, facilitating joint problem-solving, and devising recommendations for public participation in ways both Congress and citizens can trust and value. Through the research for this report and for Communicating with Congress: How Capitol Hill is Coping with the Surge in Citizen Advocacy, we now have identified the perspectives both citizens and congressional staff have of congressional communications. We have also gained significant insight into the perspectives of the public affairs community through meetings to discuss the problems and possible solutions, participation in conferences on grassroots advocacy, and a review of online grassroots advocacy practices related to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court nominations. Our fall 2007 Communicating with Congress conference brought together more than two hundred representatives from both sides of the equation to discuss the processes, problems, and possible solutions to the current state of communications between Members of Congress and those they represent. Since then, we have been devising and vetting a concept and recommendations for a new model for citizen communications, which is being released for public comment concurrently with this report. It is our hope that this report, with the other research products of the Communicating with Congress project, will help congressional offices better understand citizens in the Internet Age. Although the news is not all good, our findings provide abundant opportunities for congressional offices to target their resources and communications strategies more effectively - both online and offline - to improve their interactions, relationships, and reputations with those they represent. By providing this data, CMF is giving Congress the necessary information to better adapt to the new communications environment rather than basing its practices on inefficient techniques, anecdotal evidence, and antiquated strategies. We also hope this report will provide the organizers of grassroots advocacy campaigns with a new perspective on their role in the democratic dialogue. Citizens rely on the organizations they trust to provide them with information and motivation which helps them become engaged in public policy. Those who mobilize citizens and generate messages to Capitol Hill should consider opportunities to foster improved relationships between Members of Congress and those they represent. Citizens depend on them for more than simply winning legislative victories. We hope the information in this report will help organizations implement their advocacy campaigns with a better understanding of the larger context in which they operate. The Internet has had a profoundly positive effect on the democratic dialogue between citizens and Congress, offering millions of Americans new opportunities to learn about and interact with their elected officials. However the full potential has yet to be realized. The breadth, fluidity, and affordability of online communications offer both sides in this dialogue the chance for a greater understanding of the other's motives and values. This greater understanding could not only lead to a more efficient government, but a more effective and more responsive government. It also could result in a better public understanding of Congress, chipping away at the cynicism about government that seems to permeate our society. footnotes3. The Internet and Politics 2007. Lee Rainie, Pew Internet and American Life Project. May 2007. http://www.pewinternet.org/ppt/Lee%20Rainie%20-%20PDF%20material%20-%20 for%20posting.pdf 4. America’s Civic Health Index: Broken Engagement. A report by the National Conference on Citizenship with CIRCLE and the Saguaro Seminar. September 18, 2006. http://www. ncoc.net/conferences/2006civichealth.pdf CwC: How the Internet Has Changed Citizen EngagementRead the full report:  CWC_CitizenEngagement (2.6Mb)
42 pages.
About the Communicating with Congress Project
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