The revolution may be under way.
Rich Harwood, one of the finest researchers on the subject of citizens in democracy, has detected powerful shifts in America that should cause every institution to rethink its view of people.
His research has profound meaning for Your Voice Ohio news media participants as we try to re-earn the trust of citizens. Essential to our success is considering whether our communities have become the most powerful elements of American democracy. People are seizing power as governments become paralyzed. This means we have to think on a far more complex level.
Two take-aways, for me, from Harwood’s recent research:
- We hear the admonition that people deserve respect. That may be wrong. Respect is viewed as earned. Harwood said that people crave dignity, just for the fact that they exist. Unless people feel that institutions treat them with dignity, they lose faith.
- The inability of institutions such as Congress to make difficult decisions on behalf of the people may have shifted power to the community, where citizens must solve problems, otherwise problems will not get solved.
Here are the bullet points from Harwood that ought to guide media work with their people:
- Dignity is at the core. We must honor each other, have faith in one another.
- Action is going to emerge from communities
- We need to build together. Share work. Discover capabilities in people we didn’t know existed.
- We have to make the good visible. Lots of good is happening, but visible only to those involved. It doesn’t mean feature stories in the media, but meaningful recognition. It it’s not named, it doesn’t exist.
- Need to spread these new practices, not scale them. That means adapt solutions to community, as they fit. Don’t attempt to create universal solutions and impose.
- Give care to weaving a new story for each community. It’s not going to happen on its own.
- We have to be intentional if this new narrative is to take root. What are the ways that different groups put a steak in the ground. This is a fight that restores whether we have faith in ourselves.
A caution from Harwood: Citizens often want to solve the biggest problem first. Big problems are big for a reason. Think about solving problems in which communities can see results.
Harwood offered this very personal touch as he considered people who, on their own, decided to help during the Houston floods:
The divisions in our land are real. We cannot sugarcoat them. Nor pretend they do not exist. We must face them straight up with a healthy dose of courage and humility.
Yet amid the dark tragic loss from this hurricane, comes some light of hope. There is a critical lesson for us all at this time of dispiriting political upheaval: Let us reclaim a sense of shared responsibility—and in doing so, restore our belief in one another and renew our can-do spirit.
