Here’s our year-end impact review—and our questions for 2021
This year was slated to be our year of impact. We started off with a bang in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where we released Decoding Media Impact: Insights, Advice and Recommendations, our impact report summing up seven years of research in the media impact space.
The 2018 Media Impact Forum
On May 10, we convened our annual Media Impact Forum at the American Philosophical Society—the home of America’s oldest learned society—in Philadelphia. From its earliest days, the American republic has relied on scientific inquiry to propel our nation forward, in all facets of our life–in commerce, national defense, social policy and creative expression, among many other areas. […]
Messaging, misinformation and movements: Impact takeaways from the Frank conference
Last month, we headed down to Gainesville, Fla., for the annual Frank gathering of people who use communications to drive social change. This year, the conference felt more necessary than ever. Many of us in the social-change sector are looking for answers to how we continue our work in a culture that not only rejects […]
Popularity of virtual reality is booming, but impact is mixed
“It was too close for comfort, but maybe that was the point,” writes The Case Foundation’s Louise Storm of her first virtual reality experience. Viewing the New York Times’ series “The Displaced”—which tells the stories of three children displaced by war—her initial response was tears. But then the chief of staff to CEO Jean Case began […]
Exploring the return on investment for interactive storytelling
Following the buzz in journalistic circles, it seems clear that interactive stories and productions have the potential to engage audiences in new and exciting ways. But how does this work exactly—and when should funders be stepping in to invest more seriously in such experiments?
How to turn climate change nonbelievers into believers, and believers into doers
In November, Media Impact Funders and Vulcan Productions convened award-winning media makers, funders and researchers to share best practices for crafting high-impact media on climate change. In this guest post, Annie Neimand—the research director and executive editor for the frank conference and website—rounds up the latest research on what works in environmental communications, which she […]
#Frank2015 Recap
By Bruce S. Trachtenberg I’ve been working in the field of social change communications for a long time, and over the years I’ve seen various efforts to measure – even define – success. Then, just the other day, while attending the frank2015 conference, an annual gathering focused on public interest communications, I heard a speaker […]