Young people want dialogue with ‘real people’

The Hansard Society has recently published Parliament2020, a visioning exercise on what Parliament could look like in the future, with interesting insights for dialogue. The study gathered views from first-time voters, parliamentarians and parliament officials. First-time voters said they expected more two-way dialogue from their elected representatives, in particular using more online social media. Interestingly, young people also felt it was important that politicians were ‘shown in their day-to-day lives, presenting them as regular people’ and combating the perception that they are detached from the general public.   All groups wanted to see Parliament using new technologies to more actively engage with citizens, but interestingly parliamentary officials, MPs and Peers prioritised informing the public and focused less on engaging in two-way communication.

Recently, a number of scientists have been trying to tackle a similar issue in their profession. The latest book from Michael Brooks, ‘Free Radicals’, outlines that scientists have been trying too hard to come across as responsible, sober and authoritative. In his view, the public do not often see the wild, creative and very human endeavour that science really is and the scientist has become ‘the monk of our age - timid, thwarted, anxious to be asked to help.’ Scientist Alan Alda noticed a similar trend - however dynamic and interactive scientists were when talking about their work together, they often switched to a more formal tone when communicating with the public, rather than allowing their personalities to shine through.

However, the feedback from Hansard’s young voters suggests that getting a sense of the personalities behind politicians can be important for young people. The initiative I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out of Here, found similar results when it comes to scientists.  It gets young people to talk to scientists online, and gives them £500 to award to their chosen scientist at the end of the programme. Again, students’ feedback repeatedly described the benefits of realising that scientists are ‘real’ people. A key foundation of good dialogue is creating connections between people.

Trends in social media mean that the next generation want to understand the people behind the ideas, headlines and decisions, whether in science dialogues such as I’m A Scientist or in political debates.   Effective dialogue will require those involved in policy development whether to rise to this challenge.