WABI covers honors student’s research presentation to Bangor City Council
WABI (Channel 5) reported on a presentation made to the Bangor City Council by University of Maine Honors College student Jaymi Thibault. For her honors thesis, Thibault studied the city’s ongoing outreach efforts and assess how residents access information from the government. Working with the city, the political science major from Lisbon developed a survey that was taken by more than 500 Bangor residents. She also conducted focus groups with two demographics the city was concerned it might not be reaching: residents over the age of 60 and renters. Thibault said she found Bangor is successfully reaching its population through a mix of communication platforms. The study also suggests the city’s “GoBangor” cellphone app, which has been downloaded by more than 1,000 people, was popular among those who used it, but could benefit from greater promotion among residents, WABI reported. “I think my main takeaway from this would be that the city is doing a great job, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt to promote the email alert system and the GoBangor app because a lot of people didn’t know about those things,” Thibault said.