Government's research and evaluation gap

Abstract

In theory, public information requires research to understand audiences and evolution to measure effectiveness. And government information officers almost universally proclaim the importance of research and evaluation to their work. Unfortunately, however, there is a huge gap between the admission of the importance of research and evaluation and their actual use by public information officers and offices in the federal government. This article, based on a survey of 131 top information officers in Washington, D.C., describes the discrepancies between theory and practice in government information operations and points to some of its root causes. Carolyn M. Devine is currently on leave from her post at the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue graduate work in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She holds an M.A. degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in French history from Middlebury College. Ray Eldon Hiebert is editor of the Public Relations Review and a professor at the University of Maryland. Seven graduate students at the University of Maryland contributed to the research on which this article is based. They are: Gene Jeffers, Andrea Cremins, Anita K. Saville, Marianne Kyriacos, Sharon B. Reid, Heidi Daniel, and Sally C. Koch.