{"id":1284,"date":"2026-08-07T18:47:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/?p=1284"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:47:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:47:59","slug":"getting-the-public-back-into-public-hearings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/getting-the-public-back-into-public-hearings\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting the Public Back into Public Hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“Something to Talk About” can run as a horizontal or vertical graphic. It can stand alone or accompany a story.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

“The public hearing is a great American tradition, firmly rooted in the notion that average folks ought to have a voice amid the policy-making,” Wichita Eagle editor Rick Thames told his readers last month.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Unfortunately it may also be a tradition in decline.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Nobody knows this better than journalists,” Thames wrote. Sometimes journalists outnumber citizens in the hearing room. At other times, special-interest groups are the public’s only representatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

“How did a concept so sacred and dear to democracy end up so empty and seemingly insignificant?” he asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it apathy? Inconvenience? Fear? Or a sense of futility that dampens public input?<\/span><\/p>\n

Or, he wrote, does the media fail to communicate the significance of a proposed change to people’s lives?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Eagle in May launched a six-month experiment to try to change all that: an informational graphic designed to alert readers to a public hearing, highlight the potential impact, report who might be affected, and encourage comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s called “Something to Talk About.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our goal is to try to create pathways for people to be more-involved citizens,” said Dion Lefler, The Eagle’s day news editor, who spearheaded the design. Readers are invited to attend the hearing, call in their comments, or e-mail The Eagle.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We wanted to reach across the spectrum for people to be involved . . . whatever they are comfortable with, we wanted to create a pathway for them to do that.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The first graphic, published Sunday, May 17, invited reader input on who should run a new trash transfer site to be opened after a local landfill closes. Should it be a public utility or a private enterprise?<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of a graphic “gives it immediacy,” Lefler said. “It gives the sort of feeling of something different. We are doing something different here: We are asking people to get involved rather than put out information and say, ‘Do with it what you will’.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The box is designed with a photo or other graphic element so that it can stand alone, or accompany a story. It can be laid out vertically or horizontally.<\/span><\/p>\n

The initial box met with high approval from city officials and it ranked among the top things called up on The Eagle’s web site – a good response, Lefler said, considering it ran on River Festival Sunday, the town’s biggest event of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lefler expects some refinements and he invites suggestions. Call him at 316-268-6527 or e-mail dlefler@ wichitaeagle.com.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Something to Talk About” can run as a horizontal or vertical graphic. It can stand alone or accompany a story. “The public hearing is a great American tradition, firmly rooted in the notion that average folks ought to have a voice amid the policy-making,” Wichita Eagle editor Rick Thames told his readers last month. “Unfortunately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,71,82,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catalyst-by-date","category-civic-catalyst","category-kudos","category-summer-1998"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319,"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions\/1319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}