Using Communication Skills to Enact Change

Speaking in public is not always a comfortable or smooth process; however it is important to be confident and comprehensible when communicating leading policy change. I think one part of being confident when communicating policy change comes from being knowledgeable about the topic you are presenting to your audience, which is legislator. Once educators demonstrate their knowledge about children and families and use their power of advocacy regarding early childhood education, they are able to provide a clear explanation to representatives who do not have a background in education on the matter at hand. Representatives or senators are the only ones that can guide a policy through the process, so in order to influence legislators, your message must be clear and establishing a relationship through face-to-face meetings becomes a more effective way of communicating.

My communication strengths consist of being comfortable and knowledgeable of a subject; therefore, I have no problem talking to small or large groups. In most cases my comfort level on topics like early childhood education, becomes a natural process whether I am speaking or advocating for early childhood education. According to the “communication anxiety questionnaire”, which measures my communication level, it stated that I feel comfortable in most situations and feel confident in anticipating such encounters. I have to be honest, there have been times when I am nervous speaking to different size groups of people, but I make sure to be prepared with an agenda, therefore, I won’t forget to say something that could be of major importance. In contrast to my strengths, according to the “communication anxiety questionnaire”, one of the results stated that I feel somewhat concerned about a number of communication contexts, but probably not all. This mid-point level of communication anxiety is what they call “situational”. I believe the passion of the speaker is what makes the communication effective.

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Communication anxiety [Interactive media]. Retrieved

from https://class.waldenu.edu

Pillow-Price, K. L. (2009). Influencing legislation—Advocacy basics. Dimensions of Early

Childhood, 37(3), 18–23.

Social Media's Influence on Policy Issues

The age of technology has provided us with the World Wide Web (www), that became the information system on things we were in search of and we also have the convenience of communicating quickly through blogs, emails, and phone texts. Now social media has become the wave of communication. With social media, opinions can be expressed, braking news can be shared, and information on social issues becomes public. The generation of social media evolved into many names, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tumblr. There are so many options to choose from; however choosing a social media that would generate the information needed to the desired population is important.    

A policy that I am interested in, involves “Recognizing Qualified Family Childcare Programs to Implement Universal Pre-K Programs”. Social media could be a route that would generate multiple attention and support to my policy. The use of Facebook and LinkedIn would be the two social media that I would connect to in order to communicate my policy issues. My Facebook audience would consist of colleagues and parents that are in the shared arena of early childcare education and has the same views. These colleagues and parents may share information on my policy to their associated colleagues; therefore adding more supporters of my policy. My LinkedIn audience would be professionals in education and the political field. By linking with those audiences it may also increase addition support to my policy.

The reason I would use those two social media is to exchange opinions that would bring new insight than officials and for government to adopt citizens’ ideas in the policy proposal making and decision stages. One challenge in using both social medium is making sure that the information provided about the reasons for the policy is correct. According to June, Hong, and Sung-Min (2011), it is important that what is said on social media is truthful and carefully stated because once information is posted into social media there is no turning back. Another challenge for using social media is getting additional audience to support your policy, for example, your audience may be the same people you communicate with often. In a case study, “The Advance Michigan Project”, there was an attempt to use social media to engage with stakeholders; however, one of many challenges they encountered was not attracting a wide group of stakeholders in Michigan, but the same audiences they already had (Lampe, LaRose, Steinfield, & DeMaagd, 2011).

In my opinion, social media may have its benefits and challenges; however it is a major source of communication and it all depends on how it is used.

Reference

June, P., Hong, C., & Sung-Min, P. (2011). Social media's impact on policy making. SERI

Quarterly, 4(4), 125–129.

Kagan, S. L., & Kauerz, K. (Eds.). (2012). Early childhood systems: Transforming early

learning. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Lampe, C., LaRose, R., Steinfield, C., & DeMaagd, K. (2011). Inherent barriers to the use of

social media for public policy informatics, Innovation Journal, 16(1), 1-17.