Growing public trust in statistics through collaborative communication and intelligent transparency
Simon Baugh, Chief Executive of the Government Communication Service (GCS), and Ed Humpherson, Director General for Regulation for the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), recently presented together at the GSS Conference in Edinburgh. This blog highlights some of the key themes of the conference.
Ed and Simon discussed with the audience how analysts and communications teams can work well together when there is a need for speed but also appropriately representing data.
Both sides are trying to achieve the same end goal – effective government communication that tells, instead of becoming, the story.
The link between public trust and transparency is essential across all of government. Evidence should back up decisions and policies, and be accompanied by supportive and helpful communications that don’t backfire.
Communicating statistics online
Many social media platforms thrive on simplified, engaging content that often takes the form of data visualisations and infographics such as a chart or diagram.
These infographics often have minimal text and aim to communicate information quickly to tell a story.
There are many good and bad examples of these. However, when done poorly – such as where data are taken out of context, not sourced or designed with inaccurate axes – people may come to view them not as helpful information, but as government manipulating or cherry-picking data – a counterproductive outcome.
Finding the balance between reaching a mass audience (on platforms like TikTok) while maintaining the integrity of the statistics produced and disseminated by government is critical. The trick is being honest about what is being portrayed while not overwhelming the public with a constant stream of information. Here, less really is more.
Embedding intelligent transparency
Using intelligent transparency can help prevent online miscommunication.
Intelligent transparency doesn’t require reams of text or complicated caveats – it’s simply about making sure the source of figures presented in online forms of communication, like infographics, can be easily traced back.
Most people understand transparency as something that is open or clear. In the world of statistics and data, intelligent transparency allows the public to have confidence in statistics and those producing them. Specifically, it involves proactively taking an open, clear and accessible approach to the release and use of data and statistics.
Everyone should be able to form a good understanding of, and have confidence in, the numbers publicly used by government.
Intelligent transparency means that statistics can be easily accessed, scrutinised and used appropriately. It helps people answer questions they have about quoted figures, like ‘where does that number come from? How was it calculated, and who did the calculation? Are there any warnings that should come with it?’ Embedding transparency in government communications can help people trust them.
Achieving transparency in government communications requires forward thinking about policy development, so that communications are released at the right time to support thinking and decisions on an issue. In this way, communications teams can meet the wider public need for information and present data and statistics in a way that aids understanding and prevents misinterpretation.
Working towards a common goal
There’s more to intelligent transparency than just getting the data out there; we need collaboration among the teams producing the statistics and those communicating them to the public to enable it.
Three tips for embedding intelligent transparency in your communications:
1. Ensure equality of access
Data used by government in the public domain should be made available to everyone in an accessible and timely way.
2. Enhance understanding
Sources for figures should be cited, and appropriate explanations of context, including strengths and limitations, should be communicated clearly alongside figures.
3. Enable independent decision making and leadership
Decisions about the publication of statistics and data, such as content and timing, should be independent of political influence, led by knowledgeable experts and part of a wider planned communications strategy linked to policy processes.
There’s sometimes a belief among statisticians that communications professionals want to use statistics to ‘back up’ a side in an argument. However, both are looking to inform others with statistics and help them make decisions, rather than searching for numbers that support a particular belief. Yet such misconceptions can prevent collaborative working between the two.
Closer working between communications professionals and other functions helps enable people to easily understand and scrutinise the data they use to make decisions and inform the public.
Visit OSR’s website to find out more about what is at the heart of our intelligent transparency campaign.
Ed Humpherson & Simon Baugh
