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In today’s fractured information environment, leaders must rethink how they engage with their constituents. Traditional methods of connecting with people are often no longer effective to break through the noise and fractured nature of today’s media and information landscape. The following are tips, guides, and resources for better understanding and navigating the spread of critical information.
Connecting Across the Fractured Information Landscape
1 . Diversify Your Media Consumption
Expand your sources, beyond the official and familiar, to gain a broader, more strategic view – and hear other voices yourself.
2 . Engage Independent Voices
Partner with citizen journalists, community influencers, and independent voices to amplify trusted information.
3 . Frame Messages for Broad Appeal
Reframe issues to avoid partisan triggers (e.g., “extreme weather” verses “climate crisis.”)
4 . Focus on Local Concerns
Prioritize unifying around community needs rather than national politics.
5 . Equip Your Team for Social Listening
Treat media monitoring like opposition research and stay informed on the pulse of public conversations.
6 . Identify Key Spreaders of Mis/Disinformation
Identify critical groups that require focused engagement and tailored interventions.
7 . Proactively Shape the Narrative
Equip your staff to craft a clear, proactive message that reflects your city’s priorities-don’t get sidetracked by never-ending fact-checking.
8 . Use Data to Inform Messaging
Seek out and analyze hyper-local data sources and intelligence to ensure your communications resonate with community concerns and values.
PIPE Action Plan for Misinformation
Rumor, controversy and misinformation have always accompanied new technology, and platforms are scaling back content moderation—this won’t change soon. The PIPE action plan helps assess and respond to this era of information problems:
Problem
Identify the Problem
- How do you know something is wrong?
- What are the specifics? (I.e. Robocalls, spam)
- Who stands to gain? Can intent be established?
- Where are you losing control of the narrative (Social Media)
Possibilities
- Does the content violate laws or Terms of Service?
- Can you expect the platforms to intervene?
- Who are allies and potential partners?
- Will media attention make it better or worse?
Impact
- Who is at risk, and what are their vulnerabilities?
- What is the scale of the problem?
- How much of your time is being occupied by the problem?
Expectations
Set the Expectations
- Are you staffed appropriately?
- Do your staff have the tools they need?
- When do you call in outside help?
- Can this be an opportunity for public education?
Communicating Across Divides: Remember to H.E.A.R.
Harvard Kennedy School Professor Julia Minson leads research on effective strategies for communicating across ideological divides. You can put this research into practice by remembering the “H.E.A.R.” acronym:
Hedge your claims
- “I think it’s possible that…”
- “This might happen because…”
- “Some people tend to think…”
Emphasize agreement
- “I think we both want to…”
- “I agree with some of what you are saying…”
Acknowledge other perspectives
- “I understand that…”
- “I see your point…”
- “What I think you are saying is…”
Reframe to the positive
- “I think it’s great when…”
- “I really appreciate it when…”
- “It would be so wonderful if…”
Learn more and practice conversational receptivity at Professor Minson’s website receptiveness.net
Social Research and Listening Tools
Rand Corporation: Tools That Fight Disinformation Online: https://www.rand.org/research/projects/truth-decay/fighting-disinformation/search.html
Harvard Bloomberg Center’s “True Views” tool helps understand public opinion on a variety of issues down to a hyper local level: https://trueviews.org/
Internet Archive Chrome extension (helps find previous versions of websites): https://bit.ly/3OH6TWf
Research Bibliography
Civic engagement declines when local newspapers shut down, Research Round-Up, The Journalist’s Resource, Shorenstein Center, June 2018
Hide and seek: The connection between false beliefs and perceptions of government transparency
Seeing lies and laying blame: Partisanship and U.S. public perceptions about disinformation
Review of social science research on the impact of countermeasures against influence operations
Countering Disinformation Effectively: An Evidence-Based Policy Guide, Carnegie Endowment, January 2024
The decline of local news has become a campaign problem, Columbia Journalism Review, September 2024
Media Competition and News Diets, working paper, September 2021 (“research shows that a decrease in local news coverage can lead to individuals voting for the same political party across national and local elections”)
Newspaper Decline and the Effect on Local Government Coverage, whitepaper, Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at The University of Texas at Austin, November 2019
To have better disagreements, change your words – here are 4 ways to make your counterpart feel heard and keep the conversation going, Dr. Julia Minson, originally published in The Conversation, June 2023
Examples of reframing messages: Want to reach skeptics? Researchers suggest leaving the term ‘climate change’ out of some news coverage, Research Round-Up, The Journalist’s Resource, May 2022
Can Conversational Receptiveness Build Trust in the Media?, Dilan Tulan, Charles A. Dorison, Nancy Gibbs and Julia Minson, Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (August 2024).
