Overview

Surveys in Philadelphia, San Jose, and Macon show that those who believe city hall is forthcoming are more likely than others to feel good about: the overall quality of their community; the ability of the entire information environment of their community to give them the information that matters; the overall performance of their local government; and the performance of all manner of civic and journalistic institutions ranging from the fire department to the libraries to the local newspaper and TV stations.

In addition, government transparency is associated with residents’ personal feelings of empowerment: Those who think their government shares information well are more likely to say that average citizens can have an impact on government.

About the Survey

This report is based on survey research done by the Pew Internet Project and the Monitor Institute, with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It is based on polls in three communities - Philadelphia (N=503), San Jose (N=504), and Macon (N=503) - that were conducted in November 2010. The interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and, overal, included 398 interviews conducted on cell phones.The margin of error in each city's sample is =/- 4.8%.

A large spreadsheet of the survey questions and results is available by clicking on "Explore Survey Questions" above.

The regressions upon which some of the analysis are available in Appendix A.