Page 165 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

In addition to closing the loop, you are also responsible for disseminating and scaling the decision. This means raising public awareness of both the decision and the role everyday people played in making it. The previously mentioned role of the media is useful here. You might also seek to include a communications or publicity aspect to the process from the beginning. An effective form of this is recording video interviews with participants that captures their ‘journey’ throughout the deliberation. There are two important narratives to explain here: first, that the people in the room are everyday people; second, that they spent time learning and talking with one another before arriving at a common ground decision independent from government influence. You should encourage participants to talk about their experience at their school, sport club, workplace or on social media. This helps the experience of 30 informed citizens spread to a wider – and still diverse – mix of several thousand people. People often place more trust in familiar faces than in the news. Clearly communicating the independence of the process and who made the decision are the major factors in increasing public trust in a decision. 163