Birds-of-a-Feather: Media Impact

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Comment by Jessica Clark on February 13, 2009 at 1:01pm

Notes from lunchtime discussion:

Initial rubric for discussing impact
Metrics: 
tracking money and audience

Influence: 
tracking reach, authority and consequences

Mission: 
tracking how outcomes match vision and goals

Engagement: 
tracking audience participation

an addition: Impact on the field, how the project generates the model

Easy to capture reactions online, but there's a real disconnect between in-person reaction and getting people online

Patrice: you can't measure the impact of a story, but you can measure activism online

Google: key to finding communities and projects

Important to articulate idea that the power of story is not currently measurable

Anecdotal capture important

Obama campaign

Were always asking people for something: door knocking, etc.
created actual numbers

misses the anecdote

need to make sure to identify a next step

Christian: difference between working with issue-based organizations vs. being an artist, filmmaker

a lot of filmmakers begin by wanting to make the film, not thinking about partners

Eric from NAPT: some issue-oriented media isn't trackable
like educating people about Native American communities

Hard to measure a shift in understanding

Usually find out later on through a station--individual anecdote

How can you know that a film has had an impact?

teacher talking about how people used films she showed in class

other teacher created a whole lesson around this film having to do with body image--addressed issues in classroom but didn't put kids on the spot

NOTE: passalong is one measure

Matt:
3 levels
1) individual impact: attitude change, preference change, dimensions of learning, action (political or behavior change)
might vary by nature of media and audience

2) More indirect impacts
media coverage for your initiative
word of mouth
setting media agenda
creating conversations
policy impacts: state/local/nationa

Challenge: thinking systematically about range of impacts that media can have and what are the range of tools and methods that can be chosen and scaled to budget and expertise

synergy with professional and nonprofit community
how to build up a scholarly field for interest in public media

Patrice: most people would say that NIOT had impact--power of storytelling

Did they stop hate? No, but storytelling is a strong tool for prejudice reduction

Matt: co-production element is important
doing formative research that informs the design of the project that you evaluate

systematically approach design of public media

Patrice: but there's going to be pushback
needs to be instinctual
"You don't want to box it in so that this is the only method"

Media Change Lab guy:
Artists often reinventing the wheel, and advocacy films often fail

Message and messengers don't always match in advocacy films

Filmmakers think that they're going to reach everyone, so targeted outreach might not occur to them

Matt: Inconvenient Truth--successful in making money, reinforce base of climate change advocates; didn't move folks who weren't already sympathetic

New project: not focused around environmental values or disaster--now around economic recovery

using nontraditional spokespeople in entertainment markets
social networking site

1) mobilize the base
2) go beyond the base

Eric: a lot of media buzz
need to look at difference between buzz and action
buzz can open the door for other projects
expected impact can also work--part of the eco trend for corporations

when you mobilize a base you risk polarizing an issue: republicans have gotten even more skeptical

Education Entertainment--have been looking at impact of dramatic productions

quantifiable change in terms of what people do is astounding

One thing that comes out of this research is repeatability
Where do we really want to have impact, so how do you repeat the message?

Patrice: important to build one story on another story

Eric Galatis:
Viewer surveys--sampling
85 percent of people who watch FSTV have taken some sort of action, from going to a demonstration to educating someone else
comments made on streamed videos
encourage viewers to call us to tell us what they think

Brave New Films--lots of information, lots of lists, but no resources to find out what they're doing

Change Making Media Lab

Matt: one idea is to have a story summit
examine assumptions about what makes for an effective story
example: one story is that saving the environment is important
a different story: focusing on public health consequences
not a lot of storymaking about these issues because we don't question the frames
National Minority Consortia did a series on health impact of environmental changes
Series name: unnatural causes

Media Change Lab: doing another research project on environment
danger/terror vs. positive change

salience: consistent set of stories start to emerge and amplify

John Boland: it has gotten both confusing and expensive to do evaluation

at PBS: Neilsen ratings, clips and clicks are counted, streaming, DVDs sold--but it's expensive to have a person to assemble basic metrics

can use social media tools and online surveys
but there's a data glut
decide when you're creating the film/defining the project
set out a measurement plan at the outset

What's the best measure that you can afford to employ?

May be just as simple as audience, or as complicated as primary research on a change of mind or form of action with before-and-after survey research

Better to think of something more affordable b/c it's really tough if you make the film and get it distributed and THEN figure out what the impact is

Metric about the impact of stories and storytelling?

Story-based monitoring: "Most significant change"
methodology

interesting work:
new literacy studies
Michael Wesch: You Tube study

Comment by Amy Hendrick on February 12, 2009 at 10:38pm

I'm interested in ways to measure the impact of web-based participatory tools. Check out my youth storytelling project at http://www.ourstoriesdc.com/ (a Future of Public Media Demonstration project!)

Comment by Patrice O'Neill on February 12, 2009 at 10:25am

I hope we can spend a few minutes discussing successful social networking strategies for enhancing the impact of documentary storytelling.

Comment by Chris Golden on February 11, 2009 at 11:34pm

I'm looking forward to sharing information about a project a colleague and I are working on, called myImpact, which is a new media platform for young people involved in full & part time national service to share their stories of service and demonstrate their impact, using new Web 2.0 technology. Looking forward to sharing and hearing feedback!

Comment by Cornelia Barr on February 11, 2009 at 11:29pm

I think we are at the brink of new ways of distributing media and using media to bring about social change--and I'm looking forward to engaging with others who are working toward similar goals!

Comment by Jessica Clark on February 10, 2009 at 10:37pm

Check out some resources we've been collecting on media impact research at http://delicious.com/socialmedia/media_impact

Comment by Marj Kleinman on February 10, 2009 at 8:29pm

I'm developing an interactive/participatory outreach series and am looking to define measurable goals. My Master's is in Applied Psych, so I am interested in how research may play a role in the project or in our work in general.

Comment by Jeremy Kagan on February 8, 2009 at 1:35am

I would like to hear about any quantifiable impact that any film or series of films have had.

Comment by Barbara Abrash on February 4, 2009 at 5:25pm

I'm looking forward to meeting others who believe
that documentary films can produce social change -
and have good ideas about how we can know when,
how and why that happens.

Barbara