COMMITTEE PARTICIPATION: A MULTIMEDIA APPROACH


The webcast and online chat, along with television broad- casting, helped the committee achieve its objective of increasing public meeting participation.


opportunity to respond to questions or comments made by social media participants and therefore to “set the record straight”. There is also an opportunity to screen out offensive or inappropriate commentary. Registration for the chat room could be a remedy for the issue of anonymity. The committee could require


chat room participants to register, compelling chatters to give their names and demographic or even occupational information in exchange for access to the chat room.8 Registration could provide enough of a disincentive to dissuade chatters from making assertions online that they would not otherwise make.


Furthermore, through registration the committee could gather information on chatters that would illuminate how representative they are of the public at large.


Demographic information would


assist the committee in better understanding its audience and thus would provide the committee insight into the groups of people who are or are not participating in the meeting. There are drawbacks to requiring


advance registration, however. If the process to participate becomes too arduous or complex, then people might choose to not participate at all. This could be a perilous risk to take given the current low rate of participation.


56 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One


Additionally, it is possible that


individuals might exhibit their frustration with the registration process in posting comments critical of the administrative hoops required to participate, something which would reflect poorly on the committee.


The committee would be wise to carefully weigh the merits of requiring registration against these significant disadvantages.


Conclusion The use of a multimedia approach


“Chat participation has enhanced the traditional means of interactivity, and it has meant that the objective of increased interactive engagement in meeting proceedings, albeit on a small scale, has been achieved.“


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