On March 22, the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly held a special meeting to consider the impact of the coronavirus. Due to the restrictions of social distancing, it was decided to livestream the meeting on Facebook. It was not the first time that the Assembly has been streamed live.
In January 2018, I began streaming the meetings free to anyone who wanted to watch. I did this for almost a year.
My hope was that the live feed would be popular enough that the Assembly might consider it as a necessary function of good government. Despite the support and encouragement of past mayors, some assembly members and regular viewers, I was unable to get a financial support or advertising help for continuing the livestream.
[Live coverage of the March 22 meeting]
Government works best when scrutinized by an engaged body politic that is able to provide feedback to our Assembly members. The more citizens that are informed and participate in public issues, the better our government works. The fallout of a disengaged community is that our elected officials are not always getting an accurate read on the information they are receiving and instead are relying on their own best heuristics to make policy. In that case special interest and Assembly gadflies are quick to advocate for their issues and they are not always reflective of the majority interest. Participation in a democracy is what will make our democratic system work best.
Yes, the audio has been provided by KTOO for a long time. In fact Assembly Meetings have been on the radio since before the internet was created. That is the exact reason why it’s time to stream the Assembly meetings. Modern technologies allow for greater distribution of the feed and can provide more information than just video. Trying to follow the conversation and figure out who’s talking on the radio feed is difficult if not impossible. On screen graphics and supplemental info windows, along with video’s ability to catch the nonverbal messages, makes streaming a necessary service. Juneau is the only major city in Alaska not to offer video livestreaming or a public service video broadcast of its meetings.
Then, the March 22 meeting was held and streamed by the Juneau Assembly on Facebook. It has has recorded over 25,000 views so far. More than 500 people were watching live at anyone time during the feed. Late in the meeting as the in person audience diminished, one of the Assembly members wondered out loud whether anybody was watching any more. In fact there were 245 watching at the time. It is obvious that this is a service that is essential for providing the Assembly the oversight and feedback that is needed to produce good government.
This should be an eye opener for the Assembly to continue this service. It is obviously needed and the public should not take the spotlight off after the crisis passes. The silver lining of this pandemic is that we have learned that there is an interest, and it is in our best interest, to have the proceedings of the Assembly streamed live as a regular service.
• Larry Johansen is a third-generation Alaskan writer, photographer and author of three books about Alaska. He lives in Juneau. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire.
