The Civics Table.
A one-shot glance at the subject of a story would be helpful.
Every day there are between one and an infinite number of news articles published on the current administration’s actions, the courts’ actions, Congress’ actions, states’ actions, county governments’ actions, and so on. In the quest to be literary, journalists must decorate the reports with vagueness, suspense, hearsay, palaver, and other niceties. But that acts against the idea that people want to know what the hell is going on?! when they read a news article.
At the same time, civics education has struggled. Kids aren’t taught enough about the nuts and bolts of government, rights, law, and all that jazz. But they aren’t the only ones not taught effectively. In many fields there are requirements for continuing education, and as we’re all required by the nature of our government to know civics, we need continuing education. Unlike professional education, we must get most of our information from non-didactic materials like newspapers, so the least they could do is adopt some handy helpers like civics tables.
My proposal is that articles feature a little table that explains some basic facts without the need to form whole sentences. It would, at a minimum, ensure that the article does in fact contain those facts, and in a single location rather than strewn among the pile of gunk that most articles are full with.
My proposal doesn’t fix most of that. It simply makes reading the news a little easier. But there’s more. If adopted by news, it could also be adopted in books. Civics textbooks and history books could feature a similar format to that shown on news websites and in newspapers, making it easier for the education to dovetail into the real world.
Let’s look at an example table.
| Action | Regulation: requiring new coin and currency designs to have full-color flowers in the background on their reverse |
|---|---|
| Actors | United States Department of the Treasury (Secretary Ben Woolworth), with subsidiaries:
|
| Authorities | Statute: “Add Flowers to Everything Act of 2138” (PL 175-47; passed April 2138) Constitution: (Backing the statute) Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5: “[The power] to coin money […]” |
| Stage | Draft: proposed rule expected by week four, August 2138 (next week) |
| Documents (optional) | Pretend this links to the draft proposal. |
At least those given details are useful and common: action, actors, authorities, and stage. There may be more. While actors can be multiple, as can authorities, each independent action deserves its own table. If these tables were adopted, which fields to use would be something for journalists, historians, lawyers, and editors to figure out. Maybe the date-of-action or deadline or date-of-next-action could be included separately from the stage (e.g., the deadline for comments on a proposed rule). But I think these few are comprehensive and versatile. The specific details cells could be more detailed (e.g., authority would cite specific provisions of law) and could include hyperlinks. The headings could be intradocument links to the parts of the article that cover their aspect, if present.
The action is universal in civics. A court ruling, a vote on a matter in a city council. It’s the basic unit of civics: something is happening.
There’s always at least one actor for any civics-related function. It might be a department of the executive. It might be a branch or committee of a legislature. It might be a court.
The authority is something that should tend toward specifics. If the court rules, is there a particular antecedent case arising from statute or the Constitution? Are they relying on a particular statute? If it’s the executive, what law are they using to implement whatever action? And in the case of Congress, while most of their authority is simply in the Constitution, it can involve particular provisions. The same goes for state legislatures and their state constitutions.
Finally, because there are long processes involved and reporting can come at them at any point, the stage of the action can be noted. If it’s a draft, a rumor, a done-deal, or if it’s on its first appeal (these lawsuits grow up so fast!) versus it’s last gasp, having that right there at the bottom lets the reader know whether they can stop caring after this or if that sucker’s just getting started.
A documents row would be very useful in cases where there is at least one definitive document to link to. The proposed rule. The bill. The executive order. The court filing. The opinion. But not every case would have one, and so it should be optional.
I don’t think the proposal would fix much, but it would make some things a little easier. It would simplify teaching civics, and it would simplify news articles a bit. It would help people understand that government functions on those four things: someone (actor) with some authority is doing some thing (action) using some process (stage). The fact that those four things differ by government branch or level means there are further details to learn, but the basic ideas remain universal.