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I was a late adopter of social media as a tool for journalists. I’m a keen proponent now, but I have a realistic understanding of its limitations, and I’m still dubious about the way some reporters use it. Everyone on Twitter has seen reporters working on a fast-breaking story Tweet, “Hi @randombystander! Are you at the scene of that horrific event? Pls. call our newsroom at 1-888-WE-SCOOP.” I’m not a big fan of those Tweets, but are they all that different from the old-school knock on the door of the victim’s family to ask for a picture that was the horrific initiation right for rookie newspaper reporters? (Jack Webster used to tell a great story about the first time he had to do it). Journalism isn’t the only area where there are still bugs to be worked out when it comes to using social media as a tool for reaching your audience, and this week I saw a prime example. Councillors in Gibsons have voted to ban on-street parking along Shaw Road to make room for bike lanes (see our story on page 14). It was one of a couple of options, and to help council make the decision staff did an online survey. A total of 111 people responded, and only 40 per cent said they felt keeping the on-street parking was “either very important or moderately important.” At their afternoon committee meeting on Tuesday, councillors Charlene SanJenko and Jeremy Valeriote backed the idea. Mayor Wayne Rowe wavered a bit, but decided to vote with the other two (councillors Silas White and Stafford Lumley were not there) and send a unanimous recommendation to full council. Council met that night (this time with just Lumley, SanJenko and Valeriote in attendance). The meeting was also attended by several Shaw Road residents who are not happy about the prospect of losing on-street parking and were just as angry about how the consultation was handled. Town staff say they hand-delivered notices to homes on Shaw, inviting them to fill out the online survey, and links were posted on their website and Facebook page. The residents in the council chamber Tuesday said they either didn’t get the notice, didn’t know about the survey, or if they did, they didn’t know the deadline had been extended. They also felt it was unfair that most of the responses were from people who don’t live on the road. The SCRD and Sechelt have also used online surveys to collect opinions on issues of one sort or another, and Sechelt has been doing town hall style meetings with online participation. Those are all good things that were a long time coming and ought to continue, but online engagement has to be viewed as a value-added proposition, not a replacement for more traditional approaches. To get back to the bike lane survey – the Town of Gibsons hand-delivered pieces of paper with instructions for filling out an online survey. Would it have been that hard to deliver pieces of paper with the survey printed on them and a request to fill it out and drop it off at Town Hall? Gibsons staff pointed out Tuesday night that the Facebook post about the survey had more than 1,000 interactions. That’s good. But it obviously didn’t interact with the right people, and now Gibsons council has some fences to mend. |
