Translating intention into action: Solving journalism’s ‘impact crisis’
‘The field doesn’t lack intention. It lacks framework, architecture, and systematic planning and taxonomy for how to do this work.’ – Flora Pereira, Chief Impact Officer, Pulitzer Center
As journalists and newsrooms struggle for relevance and funding the question of their work’s impact – what it means, how it’s measured and why it demands a reframing – is the focus of the Pulitzer Center’s new Impact in Journalism report.
“There isn’t a shared consensus on what ‘impact’ even means, versus ‘engagement’ or ‘reach,’ and how those concepts differ,” Flora Pereira, the Center’s Chief Impact Officer, told participants to a recent online discussion titled Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Climate Stories. Inspired by The Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation, released two years ago by the Solutions Journalism Network and Covering Climate Now, the webinar was the fourth in a roundtable series.
According to the Pulitzer report, impact is overlooked in the focus on securing reach and building engagement: 68% of newsroom staff always measure reach and 58% measure engagement, but fewer than half (42%) track impact – “leaving much of journalism’s real-world contribution undocumented.”
There’s no lack of will to boost the impact of their work, though. The study found that, while 91.2% of respondents said they plan at least one substantive, impact-oriented action for their reporting, 54% have no actual method or framework with which to do so – and, Pereira noted, “50% of newsrooms have no one at all dedicated to impact, or when they do, that role is actually focused on engagement.”
“The field doesn’t lack intention. It lacks framework, architecture, and systematic planning and taxonomy for how to do this work,” Pereira explained.
Translating journalism in increments
One problem, the Pulitzer report states, is an idea that impact is advocacy. Of greater concern, though, is a key finding: “The assumption that production itself is enough: that if journalism keeps producing relevant stories, the public will somehow be informed.”
‘Publication can’t be the end of the journalistic process, as quality is not, by itself, a distribution strategy, and as reach is not, by itself, impact.’
Impact, notes Pereira: “Doesn’t always take the shape of direct policy change – it can take the form of a poem, or a letter – and still lead to policy change over a longer time horizon.”
Impact thinking embraces next level audience-centred journalism, Pereira said: “Moving from assumption to actual knowledge of who you’re talking to,” and “translating journalism into new languages – sometimes literally, sometimes through art.”
Broader than policy change
Heather May does just that with the Great Salt Lake Collaborative – and the Colorado River Collaborative – a group of newsrooms that work together to cover the public health, ecological, and cultural impacts of the shrinking Great Salt Lake, and to uncover potential solutions.
They’ve run several art projects to raise awareness of the lake – from after-school programs that led to student e-zines to a play largely based on the Collaborative’s reporting, and an anthology of fiction and nonfiction public submissions about the lake.
Their unique approach to climate coverage – or this particular crisis – “has really resonated and helped drive real change,” notes May. So much that May measures impact in four separate “buckets.”
- Internal impact: “The fact that we still exist.” What started as an experiment through SJN, with two years of funding has proven sustainable, with growth that has resulted in an expansion to cover the Colorado River.
- Audience impact: “Coverage of the lake has increased 20-fold since the Collaborative, which has published 1,000+ stories about the lake and the Colorado River. In a May poll, “86% of Utahns said they’re concerned about the lake – including a higher share of rural and suburban Utahns than before. Other research shows most Utahns who care about the lake still get their news from traditional sources,” adds May.
- Political impact: “State lawmakers have proposed over 100 lake- and water-related bills in the four years we’ve existed. What’s more, saving the lake is now on the Republican – and US President Trump’s – agenda.
- Cultural impact: Once dismissed as “a waste of water,” saving the lake is now a shared civic mission. “People are removing their lawns, holding protests at the legislature, filing lawsuits, creating artwork, and donating to lake-related causes,” says May.
While the Collaboratives demonstrate alternative approaches to audience and community engagement, a smaller, independent Detroit-based digital news outlet on a mission to drive informed action through community-centred, independent, environmental, and climate journalism has been experimenting – and winning – with its very own Civic Action Toolbox.
Planet Detroit founder, editor and publisher Nina Ignaczak admits she was hesitant about introducing the tool to a small, “time-strapped team. But it was immediately embraced because it aligned with what they already wanted: to help people see their role in what’s happening.”
The tool not only boosted civic engagement and action, but also changed their reporting process, adds Ignaczak: “Reporters are now thinking about the toolbox from the very start of a story, which is also shaping their reporting in useful ways.”
Built into the story, the box features standard sections: Why it matters, Who’s making the relevant public decisions, Upcoming meetings, and Things you can do to take action – including which meetings to attend, how to register to vote, and who your relevant elected official is (especially if they sit on a committee overseeing the decision), along with their contact information. They also link to organisations to follow, and note what to watch for next – is there a site plan vote coming up, for instance?
“The box also includes a form where readers can tell us if they took any action, and every link is trackable, so we can measure engagement and learn what people are passionate about,” adds Ignaczak. See how it works here.
You, too, can test the Civic Action Tool
To gauge how this tool performs with different audiences and newsroom sizes, they’ve built a streamlined version of the toolbox, and are developing a free version; they’re actively looking for interns to help test it.
Newsrooms that want to pilot test the Civic Action Toolbox should please fill out this form.
