Paul Bass Photo
Scanlon at WNHH FM: "We stink at communicating with people."
Connecticut’s comptroller had good news to tell the public. Would anyone listen, let alone believe it?
In today’s polarized politician-averse environment, that’s harder to make happen than it sounds.
The comptroller, preternaturally sunny first-termer Sean Scanlon, wanted to let people know that Connecticut has made great economic strides. Unemployment has dropped to 3.7 percent, the first time it has met the national average in years. GDP is up. The legislature passed another balanced budget. The state’s running a billion-dollar surplus (counting the general and special transportation funds).
By law, Scanlon, the state’s top fiscal officer, must let the public know about that in a dry monthly fiscal update submitted to the governor. So he included that info in the eight spreadsheets attached to his latest monthly update letter and posted on the comptroller website.
But as a media-savvy millennial, the 37-year-old Scanlon knows the vast majority of people in Connecticut will never read that report. He knows (despite the fact that even the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page has repeatedly praised Connecticut’s fiscal stewardship), many are not inclined to believe that state government is in good fiscal health or doing anything right.
So he did what he has done since joining the state legislature eight years ago and then running his successful campaign last year for the comptroller job: He took to social media.
He recorded the above one-minute video summarizing the monthly report in plain language while walking down Hartford’s Pratt Street. He has made a practice of adding these video summaries. He posted it on Facebook and Instagram.
But he also knows that social media is changing.
“Less and less people look at the videos. My video counts have gone done, the amount of people liking it,” Scanlon said Tuesday during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “People are less and less going on to that social media for enjoyment. All they’re seeing” is political partisanship and attacks.
So on one level, Scanlon is working to focus his social media posts on information mixed with personal messages (what he’s reading and watching), minus partisan vitriol. He doesn’t plan to post, for instance, about Donald Trump’s pending indictment.
He’s also looking for what’s next, he said — how people will most effectively communicate information and ideas in the post-social media-dominated age.
“We stink at communicating with people,” Scanlon said of government officials. “I’m trying to change that.”
Some of that involves making old-fashioned in-person rounds to town gatherings. He’s doing that right now to let employers know to sign up for a retirement savings program his office runs called MyCTSavings, which will now be available to most private-sector employees who don’t get employer-sponsored plans. He’s also trying to get out the message about a prescription-drug discount card becoming available to the broader public thanks to a new state law. (Read about that here.)
Click on the video to watch the full conversation with State Comptroller Sean Scanlon on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to listen to and subscribe to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”
'Communciaction' or 'indoctrination'?
This reader did not see mention of labor participation rate.Because?
Good news, unlike nhr, nhi publishes most reader comments; 2 least for now.
'Social media' has censored, and likely will continue to do so, unless, and until, the Federal laws are enforced.....not likely with the current Federal 'injustice' dept.
As such, as regards social media 'caveat emptor' is all the more revalent. That is, if you read it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or ABC news, or NHR, find three other reputable sources before you start believing it.