A combination of civic education and an evaluation of how the public is able to access news is a crucial element to boosting participation in civic society. Specic recommendations and questions being asked by the citizenry about news consumption should include:

• Improve Illinois' Open Meetings Act, the law that mandates the public's right to attend government meetings, so that public notice and public meeting agenda notice provisions are strengthened, reduce provisions that allow a public body to meet and discuss public issues behind closed doors, mandate an opportunity for public comment at all meetings subject to the statute, and implement and increase penalties for violation.

• Institute civic education in primary and secondary schools that includes helping young people develop healthy civic habits and allow critical evaluation of issues of public concern as identied by young people. Such education will build leadership skills, promote community policy discussions, and attendance of government meetings.

• Reform of media laws is necessary to restore the balance of power rightfully in the hands of the citizenry and needs to include the mandate that those entities who use the public's airwaves produce content that is in the public interest. For example, during election season, candidates for public office should be entitled to free air time, and public interest programming should be redened to focus on substantive news stories that focus on policy positions of candidates rather than the typical “horse race” stories.

• In evaluating the quality of news information consumed by the citizenry, and in promoting community dialogue on comment issues, the following questions should be asked:

– How many papers or blogs serve your community?
– What is the readership/circulation and who own(s) the news outlet(s)?
– What is the letter to the editor policy?
– Do news outlets let public ofcials run columns on a regular basis, and is the citizenry afforded the same opportunity?
– Does the press provide accurate coverage and use the Freedom of Information Act to investigate?
– Does your paper cover citizen events or civic concerns adequately?
– Do the articles reect news and comments beyond standard press releases?