Why measuring media’s impact matters

Editor’s note: In November 2017, Science magazine published the results of a multi-year study—funded primarily by Voqal, a national collaboration of EBS licensees that work to advance social equity—in which 48 small media outlets were recruited to write articles on specific subjects on randomly assigned dates. Harvard Professor Gary King and his team wanted to better understand the impact of journalism on the national conversation. The researchers found that news by small- to medium-sized outlets can have a significant impact on how Americans discuss issues. Here, Voqal’s founder, John Schwartz, discusses why Voqal took this research on and what it means for the philanthropic community. Read More

“Collaboration” is a hot concept among journalism and issue-focused funders. Linking together like-minded outlets, the thinking goes, will allow smaller projects to pool resources with larger ones, and turn up the volume on key topics. To test this proposition, The Media Consortium (TMC) has embarked on an ambitious series of experiments with Harvard University Professor Gary King. The initiative is supported by the Voqal Fund. Read More