Systems Analysis of Democracy

A Systems Analysis of Democracy
Nicholas Johnson
The Gazette, January 21, 2025, p. A5
A hotel manager, overwhelmed with guests’ complaints about slow elevators, turned to elevator companies for expertise. The experts tweaked the elevators, but the slow elevator complaints continued.

A systems analyst staying there got wind of the complaints and told the manager, “You don’t have an elevator problem.” “I think I do, smart guy. If not elevators, what is it?” “You have a complaints problem. I’ll think about it and give you a solution tomorrow.”

His solution? Put full length mirrors next to every elevator. The manager reluctantly agreed to try it. The complaints stopped once guests could admire themselves in mirrors until the elevators arrived.

That’s an example of systems analysis – an alternative to knee-jerk problem solving. Might it help us save democracy and newspapers?

Newspapers are so much more than newsprint. Like a library one walks by but never enters, they are a valuable potential resource for every business, organization, profession, home, school, and individual – as the Gazette’s 2024 “Impact Report” detailed.

So why are there 3200 fewer papers than 10 years ago? Lack of cash? That’s a slow elevators approach.

Where else to look? How about Madison Avenue’s ad agencies?

Men were the primary consumers of cigarettes in the early 1920s. Women who smoked were considered vulgar, immoral, promiscuous, “fallen” women” -- even given police warnings. One half of the potential market!

How to respond? Tell women about the quality of the tobacco? The industry’s contribution to North Carolina’s economy?

No, the ads said less about tobacco than today’s car ads explain engines. A goal for many women was appearing “thin.” So Lucky Strike advised women to “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet” – and watched its market share double. Women seeking the right to vote responded to “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!”

Tobacco’s targeting children with an addictive product assured years of profit -- like a medicine you’re told to take for the rest of your life.

Starting young makes a difference. Tiger Woods first swung a club when he was 18 months old. A five-year-old Caitlyn Clark was already playing basketball.

Newspapers may not be addictive, but they are habit forming. Children growing up in homes and schools with newspapers are more likely to be lifelong subscribers.

To maintain a democracy, and its newspapers, we need to recall advocates’ rationale for public schools: civics education is democracy’s required course. It helps if students have studied the Constitution. But all talk with neither action nor rewards won’t sustain democracy.

Did kids buy torn jeans because their legs were too warm -- or was it a way to buy group acceptance?

What do school children want that reading newspapers, and participating in democratic action – within their schools and neighborhoods -- might bring them? Better lunch? Later start time? Popularity? Leadership?

Within the answers to those questions lies the future – or extinction – of our democracy and its newspapers.

Nicholas Johnson is the author of Columns of Democracy. mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org, website: nicholasjohnson.org

SOURCES
Google search on “slow elevator problem” (or other variations) for numerous hits – and varying details. My description is consistent with these descriptions.

Nicholas Johnson, “Newspapers and Libraries Outgrow Names,” The Gazette, March 21, 2023, p. A5 https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/30130444/3279023592221737308

“The Gazette Impact Report, 2024 [I have hard copy; could not find on The Gazette website, or with Google]

Statista, “Number of local daily and non-daily newspapers in publication in the United States from 2004 to 2024,” https://www.statista.com/statistics/944134/number-closed-merged-newspapers/ (“A report on local news in the United States revealed that 3,200 weekly publications closed or merged with other papers between 2004 and 2024, with the number of non-daily papers falling from over 7.4 thousand to less than 4.6 thousand in that period.”)

“Women and smoking share checkered history,” Chicago Tribune, August 22, 2021, https://www.chicagotribune.com/2008/03/12/women-and-smoking-share-checkered-history/ (“Until the late 1920s, a woman who smoked in public was not only considered vulgar, she risked a warning from the police.”)

Marya Hornbacher, “Why Do We Smoke?” DAME, November 9, 2017, https://www.damemagazine.com/2017/11/09/why-do-we-smoke/ - “immoral, promiscuous, ‘fallen’ women” - Lucky Strike advised women to “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet” – and watched its market share double. - Smoking was “emancipation,” with ads urging, “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!”

Tobacco industry targeting children. Numerous sources. Google “tobacco advertising to youth”

“Tiger Woods,” Britannica Kids, https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Tiger-Woods/390263 (“Woods first picked up a golf club at the age of 18 months. He won more than 30 junior tournaments before becoming a teenager. At age 15, Woods won his first of three U.S. Junior Amateur titles. He then won three U.S. Men’s Amateur titles.”)

“Caitlin Clark,” Wikipedia, “Caitlin grew up in the city.[2][3][4] She began playing basketball at age five and competed in boys' recreational leagues, because her father could not find a girls' league for her age group.[2][5]”

Michael Robb, “Our New Research Shows Where Kids Get Their News and How They Feel About It; In a world where information literacy is critical, Common Sense's research explores kids' relationship to the news -- and how adults can help kids thrive as 21st-century citizens,” Common Sense, March 7, 2017, https://www.commonsensemedia.org/kids-action/articles/our-new-research-shows-where-kids-get-their-news-and-how-they-feel-about-it (“Many children say following the news is important to them and that they feel smarter when they get the news.”)

See generally, a Google search on “are children who grow up in homes and schools with newspapers more likely to become subscribers when older?”

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