Why it matters — �Designing for impact

Anjanette Delgado @anjdelgado

Jun-Kai Teoh @jkteoh

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Closed-captioning for this session: https://upword.ly/view?user=srccon2019&job=srccon2019-designing-stories-impact.

Agenda

1. About impact
2. Exercise
3. Challenges
4. Exercise
5. One more challenge
6. Sketch
7. Share

From the beginning

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

1860s

Scale and the rise �of independent papers

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Capitalist owners, printing press improvements, advertising at scale. �After 1865 and the Civil War: Inverted pyramid, facts take hold. Opnions are relegated to separate opinion pages.�1898: Pulitzer and Hearst crusade for war with Spain over Cuba.���

1900

Turning point

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Roughly half of U.S. newspapers identify as independent.�

1996

Online news

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New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, etc. launch on the Web. Scale and reach are no longer limited by place.

2006

Rise of mobile

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2006: Newspaper circulation, declining before, plummets along with ad revenue. Google and Facebook begin to own digital advertising.�2007: iPhone introduced.�

2010s

WHERE WE ARE NOW:�Exploring impact

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Business model is in flux, layoffs are dramatic. New nonprofit newsrooms and subscription models begin to embrace journalism’s influence on society.

How we define impact:

Real-world change

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Impact is why we do journalism.

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@anjdelgado @jkteoh

How we define impact:

Real-world change

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

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Four types of impact, proposed by Lindsay Green-Barber of The Impact Architects:

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1. On individuals
2. On networks
3. On institutions
4. On public discourse

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(Lindsay’s awesome. Find her at @WhimsicaLinds.)

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Let’s start with impact

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

Directions:

1. Divide into groups.
2. Open the envelope and read your project.
3. Ask yourselves this question: What are the opportunities for change as a result of my project?

Discuss and make notes.

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Challenges

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

• Lack of time
• Competition for attention — more publications and more issues
• Information bubbles and platform divides
• How our newsrooms are built — for broadcasting news
• Feelings of apathy and helplessness
• Incentives and values
• What else?

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Choose your plot twist

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

1. Which challenge or challenges from the previous slide would your project face?
2. How would you design around those challenges? Think about story form, key players, audience or community, engagement and other opportunities for action, next steps.

Discuss and make notes.

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Here’s a big one: Downs’ issue-attention cycle

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

“American public attention rarely remains sharply focused upon any one domestic issue for very long — even if it involves a continuing problem of crucial importance to society. … Each of these problems suddenly leaps into prominence, remains there for a short time, and then — though still largely unresolved — gradually fades from the center of public attention.”

— Anthony Downs, “Up and Down with Ecology: The ‘Issue-Attention’ Cycle,” 1972

Downs’ issue-attention cycle: 5 stages

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

1. Pre-problem stage
2. Alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm
3. Growing realization of the cost of significant progress
4. Gradual decline of public interest
5. The post-problem stage

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(Read more on this — it’s fascinating! “Up and Down with Ecology: The ‘Issue-Attention’ Cycle,”)

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Let’s map out the process

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

As a group, sketch the steps involved in getting your project to your goal of impact.

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Sketches from SRCCON ‘19

Here’s what we made when we designed for a specific impact type.

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P.S. Everyone was super creative ...

Body cams

Story: Footage from the PD rarely exists and often has inconsistencies.

Impact: No body cams needed, good relations.

Challenges: Attention, apathy.

Design: Community listening sessions, aggressive police reporting, repetition.

Body cams

Story: Footage from the PD rarely exists and often has inconsistencies.

Impact: No more abuse.

Challenge: Lack of access.

Design: Stakeholder analyses of community and police, listening sessions, events, reporting.

Wages

Story: We’ve never gone this long without raising the federal minimum wage.

Impact: Changed narrative, understanding..

Challenges: Newsroom talent, finding willing players, research.

Design: Sim City-like game, interviews, stories.

Crime

Story: County's crime rate is highest in Fla. for fifth straight year.

Impact: Crime victims are humanized, solutions are more widely known.

Challenge: Apathy.

Design: Children’s storytelling workshop and essays, live events, multimedia.

Crime

Story: County's crime rate is highest in Fla. for fifth straight year.

Impact: People are empowered with context, information, solutions.

Challenge: News can be disempowering.

Design: Map, identify key players and data, events with trusted partners.

Housing

Story: Affordable housing for minimum wage workers doesn’t exist.

Impact: Expansion of affordable housing.

Challenge: Complicated issue, apathy.

Design: Research access, identify stakeholder intentions.

Mortgages

Story: Seniors sold a risk-free retirement with reverse mortgages. Now they face foreclosure.

Impact: Greater financial transparency in families.

Challenge: Understanding.

Design: Outreach partners, discussion.

Education

Story: Despite more funding from state, some Minnesota school districts still face big budget cuts.

Impact: New community agency.

Design: Community outreach, solutions..

Homeless

Story: Los Angeles has experienced a 16% increase in the homeless population.

Impact: Policy change, change in discourse.

Challenge: Homelessness could be criminalized..

Design: Assess root causes and information needs before publishing.

Homeless

Story: Homelessness surges in San Francisco while tech's richest grow richer.

Impact: Tech workers help the homeless.

Challenge: Apathy.

Design: Billboards, events bringing homeless and tech workers together.

Bridges

Story: One in 10 bridges are poor condition.

Impact: Community gets a say in whether a bridge is what’s needed. What would you rather have here?

Design: Bridge quality x traffic index, community canvass, town halls.

Design: Check out this design from that last group. It takes advantage of your mobile phone’s geolocation feature. Imagine getting an alert that the bridge you are about to cross is unsafe.

Did anyone start to wonder where the red line is between journalism and advocacy?

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One group focused on the crime problem stressed that they weren’t advocating for electoral change, while the group working on bad bridges questioned whether a bridge is really the answer at all.

Thank you!

Anjanette Delgado @anjdelgado

Jun-Kai Teoh @jkteoh

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Resources

@anjdelgado @jkteoh

The Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project, USC Annenberg

“Non-Profit Journalism: Issues Around Impact,” Richard Tofel, ProPublica, 2013

“Measuring Impact: The art, science and mystery of nonprofit news,” Charles Lewis and Hilary Niles, 2013

“Up and Down with Ecology: The ‘Issue-Attention’ Cycle,” Anthony Downs, 1972

“Beyond Clicks and Shares: How and Why to Measure the Impact of Data Journalism Projects,” Lindsay Green-Barber, 2018, The Data Journalism Handbook 2

“Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism,” James T. Hamilton, 2016