Last week, we published a new report on the local information needs of Americans. Today, we’re excited to follow that up with our first local report examining one city’s information needs: Chicago. You can read it here.
The report is anchored in a survey of more than 1,500 Chicagoans done by EMBOLD research, a non-partisan, non-political data science and research company. It asked respondents for their views of the importance of and their satisfaction with local topics like economic opportunity, transportation, and education. And it asked about education topics, media habits, and civic engagement.
The Chicago survey and report are a part of a pilot project here at Civic News Company designed to support the emerging field of civic information: news organizations, libraries, schools, government agencies, individuals, and community groups coming together across the country to help people get the information they need. A changing media ecosystem, including the collapse of local American print newspapers, has contributed to meaningful challenges — including increased local government inefficiency and corruption, polarization, and civic disengagement. It has also created meaningful opportunities — including new ways to reach people and lower distribution costs.
The “Civic Information Needs Census” is an opportunity to formalize coalitions of local civic information practitioners by providing a shared data set they can all work from, so that they can ultimately understand whether each of their efforts is successful.
This Chicago effort kicked off with a gathering of community civic information providers over the summer to help shape the research and compare notes. That group included news organizations like the Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ, Block Club Chicago, and City Bureau, and others invested in civic information including the Chicago Public Library, Illinois Humanities, Better Government Association, the city’s Department of Technology and Innovation, and Northwestern University. Earlier this month, that same group was gathered to get a first look at and discuss the survey’s results.
All of this research builds on and complements work studying information ecosystems, including the Civic Information Index, Pew’s surveys on local news, and local surveys on information needs like those done in Philadelphia. Over time, we hope that studies like these are done in ways that are consistent (allowing comparison across populations), persistent (allowing for comparison over time), and, above all, actionable (informing actions taken by the field).
Again, the full report is here.
The topline results of the survey it is based on are here, and the crosstabs of that survey are here. The full survey and an overview of the methodology are here.
Additional analysis based on zip code and demographics can be done by digging into the data.
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Here are 5 takeaways you’ll find in the report:
1. On all 7 topics essential for civic health, there is a 19 to 36% gap between the importance Chicagoans place in having local information and their satisfaction with what they have. (PAGE 16)
2. Chicagoans are more likely than Americans overall to express an unmet need for local information on every topic surveyed, particularly transportation (27% difference), education (26% difference) and sports (24% difference). (PAGE 19)
3. Chicagoans are most likely to turn to friends and family when they need quality information. (PAGE 20)
4. Less than half of Chicagoans are satisfied with the information they have when making critical decisions like where to live or facing critical situations like a crime occuring nearby or changes in local law. (PAGE 22)
5. Nearly 60% of Chicagoans have gotten involved in local civic life in some way in the last year, and 18% have advocated improved local institutions, services, and policies. (PAGE 30)