THINKING OUTSIDE THE FUNNEL
THESE IMPACT MODELS MAY MAKE LESS SENSE FOR OUTLETS THAT DEFINE THEIR mission differently: to report rather than advocate, provide platforms for users to tell their own stories, act as spaces to increase dialogue instead of narrowing audience members’ focus down to a single perspective. Their “theories of change” do not focus on changing minds, but instead on changing the ways audiences acquire a more complex understanding of civic issues.
Models focused narrowly on social change are also unsatisfying for funders who may have yet another engagement goal: reimagining the relationship between news outlets and consumers.
For example, The Knight Foundation has been analyzing how newspapers previously met their “community information needs” [Note: 10] and how their collapse has hindered citizens’ abilities to participate in democracy. Central to this, the Foundation is investing in developing innovative journalism forms using new platforms that can fill the gap. Launched in 2006, the Knight News Challenge is an open contest designed to “accelerate media innovation by funding breakthrough ideas in news and innovation.”
When they evaluated the Knight News Challenge four years later, they came up with very different standards of success than those outlined in the previous models. The first lesson? “Measure success based on how funding improves the field, not just on the adoption or impact of individual projects.” For example, the platform developed by 2011 winner Waldo Jaquith for the website The State Decoded (statedecoded.com) has been adapted in several states and municipalities in order to make state laws more accessible. They noted that other markers of success for news innovation projects include developing user-friendly interfaces, successfully navigating pushback from incumbent media businesses, and finding ways to deftly balance paid and volunteer staff. [Note: 11]
Models focused narrowly on social change are also unsatisfying for funders who may have yet another engagement goal: reimagining the relationship between news outlets and consumers.
For example, The Knight Foundation has been analyzing how newspapers previously met their “community information needs” [Note: 10] and how their collapse has hindered citizens’ abilities to participate in democracy. Central to this, the Foundation is investing in developing innovative journalism forms using new platforms that can fill the gap. Launched in 2006, the Knight News Challenge is an open contest designed to “accelerate media innovation by funding breakthrough ideas in news and innovation.”
When they evaluated the Knight News Challenge four years later, they came up with very different standards of success than those outlined in the previous models. The first lesson? “Measure success based on how funding improves the field, not just on the adoption or impact of individual projects.” For example, the platform developed by 2011 winner Waldo Jaquith for the website The State Decoded (statedecoded.com) has been adapted in several states and municipalities in order to make state laws more accessible. They noted that other markers of success for news innovation projects include developing user-friendly interfaces, successfully navigating pushback from incumbent media businesses, and finding ways to deftly balance paid and volunteer staff. [Note: 11]
These journalism grants position audiences not as subjects to be influenced or educated, but as active participants in finding, sharing and even generating news—potential adopters of and ambassadors for emerging digital and mobile information tools.
Similarly, NPR’s Analytics Dashboard [Note: 12] focused on helping editors and producers better understand online audience behavior as well as shifting the culture of the newsroom to be more responsive and nimble in the process.
“A change in culture is equally as important as building a useful tool,” writes Melody Joy Kramer, who co-created the dashboard. “You can build the most useful tool in the world, but if you can’t change people’s behaviors so that they use the tool and understand the value of the tool, then what’s the point? Culture—and changing existing habits—is key to introducing a new product in a newsroom.”
Kramer wrote that the dashboard had begun to influence newsroom behavior, looping social media analytics into the decision making around editorial and outreach, allowing audience choices to serve as a guidepost. [Note:13]
Similarly, NPR’s Analytics Dashboard [Note: 12] focused on helping editors and producers better understand online audience behavior as well as shifting the culture of the newsroom to be more responsive and nimble in the process.
“A change in culture is equally as important as building a useful tool,” writes Melody Joy Kramer, who co-created the dashboard. “You can build the most useful tool in the world, but if you can’t change people’s behaviors so that they use the tool and understand the value of the tool, then what’s the point? Culture—and changing existing habits—is key to introducing a new product in a newsroom.”
Kramer wrote that the dashboard had begun to influence newsroom behavior, looping social media analytics into the decision making around editorial and outreach, allowing audience choices to serve as a guidepost. [Note:13]