«Citizens’ trust in information is in crisis» and «in the wake of a devastating pandemic, misinformation on science and vaccines has cost lives; on the other hand, effective public communication of health care has saved many others ». This is what we read in the first “OECD Report on public communication. The global context and the way forward ”, presented in collaboration with the Information and Publishing Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
35% trust social media
“Public communication can play a crucial role in addressing the double crisis of trust, towards governments and information”, continues the Report, which reports a series of data on the lack of trust in governments and information. global level: in OECD countries only 51% of respondents trust their government, while in 34 countries, 52% of respondents declare themselves dissatisfied with democracy. On the other hand, there is a “record of low trust in all categories of information providers”, with 35% trusting social media and 46% of the public trusting the news they choose to consult.
Five key principles
The OECD Report therefore identifies five key principles for promoting effective public communication: strengthening the function of public communication, with strategies that support politics and open government; institutionalize and professionalise communication, investing in adequate skills and resources; make a transition towards more informed communication, understanding the needs of different categories of public and measuring the impacts; use digital technologies and data responsibly, to support inclusion and compliance with ethical standards; react to misinformation and disinformation, with preventive and reactive interventions to curb the diffusion of those contents.
Ansuini: communication based on verifiable data is needed
“Compared to those involved in marketing, public communication must express an additional responsibility, which is the reference to the truth. The responsibility of enabling the recipient to verify and understand the information, to take care of the culture of data and news based on verifiable facts. Information must be brought back to data and reliability is an essential commitment for a public communicator “. Thus the director of the Prime Minister’s Office for Institutional Communication and Media Relations, Paola Ansuini, speaking at the presentation of the first OECD Report on public communication. «Elective recipients of a public communicator are journalists, for the professional role they play and which remains crucial in a democracy. We cannot do without those who are intermediate and have an aptitude for dissemination in order to get even very complex issues to reach a wide audience, in a transparent and effective way “, adds Ansuini, according to whom” we must not obtain improvement at all costs. of the “brand” for which we work, but to work for a public administration that is able to give each recipient what they need. A service communication is not sad but it manages to get answers and targeted messages ».