Transforming Reports into Modern Social Communication

Posted by Esther Palacio[1]

Traditional reports are losing their effectiveness and efficiency in the modern IT-dependent world, as more friendly forms of communication appear. We are talking here primarily about reports written by government agencies or think tanks, or by international finance agencies or donors, or by other public sector bodies. How should we take advantage of the new technologies and transform long and often unread reports into modern social communications that strengthen the impact of policy and technical advice? 

Reports are written with the intention to communicate. Nevertheless, in the modern era, most people rely on the traditional media and the social media. Few people have the time or inclination to read long reports. As a result, excellent reports containing important messages, analysis and data, risk not reaching their target audience, and often have little impact in practice. Moreover, the authors of reports rarely think through the key messages that need to be communicated to a wider audience, and who are the members of that audience.