Communications

Role of Communications in Policymaker Accountability
Communications Tools to Support Policymaker Accountability
Sample of Public Opinion Polls

Role of Communications in Policymaker Accountability

• Media Trust Resource Hub provides tools, training, and support to help youth use a broad spectrum of communications modalities to tell their own stories and those of their communities and impact change.
• Issue-based toolkits from the FrameWorks Institute offer practical framing strategies that communicators can put to immediate use. 
• Leading for Kids, in partnership with the FrameWorks Institute, issued three publications aimed at changing the way we talk about children and their needs to resonate more clearly with the public and policymakers: 
  • a strategic brief on the societal and cultural mindsets around kids, and how those mindsets may be keeping kids off of various policy agendas; 
  • a report analyzing how advocates and others in the field talk about kids and how we might improve their effectiveness; and
  • an analysis exploring how kids are portrayed in the news media.
• Minding Our Words: Making Our Best Case for Kids in California and the related language analysis resource are resources from ASO Communications (Anat Shenker-Osorio) which were developed for early childhood funders in California and examine the use of a variety of techniques from the field of cognitive linguistics (which is dedicated to how people process information and communicate). These reports examine how people formulate judgments and come to conclusions about resources for young children’s development.
• Raising Awareness through Public Outreach Campaigns, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Accountability Handbook
• Engaging with the Media, SDG Accountability Handbook

Communications Tools to Support Policymaker Accountability

• The Role of the media in democratic governance, Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, University of Birmingham 
• Generating Genuine Demand for Accountability Through Communication: A Trainer’s Guide, The World Bank
• Media Fostering Accountability: Accountability Resource Guide, a resource guide focused on using journalism to support building a society in which the powerful are accountable to the rest, Free Press Unlimited Resource Space
• Holding Power Accountable: The press and the public, American Press Institute

Samples of Public Opinion Polls

• 2020 public opinion survey by Lake Research Partners and commissioned by First Focus on Children showing that voters rank children as a top priority
• 2020 voter survey from the Center for American Progress and its partner at public opinion polling firm, GBAO, showing strong public support for increased government steps to make affordable, high-quality child care available
• 2021 national poll, commissioned by Children’s Funding Accelerator (Children’s Funding Project’s advocacy arm) and conducted by FM3 Research, of U.S. voters showing that creating equitable opportunities for children should be a high priority for government 
• Building Public Support for Investments in Early Childhood, polling information from Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates compiled in April 2017
• 2017 survey of San Joaquin County, California, showing voter support for a cannabis tax which would, in part, fund services for children and families