Assessing the social impact of issues-focused documentaries

The resources available to assess the social impact of issues-focused documentaries have increased during the digital era. And yet, making the decision about which research methods (and tools) to use to examine the social impact of storytelling may be a challenge within the ecosystem of creators and strategists working in the pursuit of storytelling for social change. At the same time, research methods from social science – in the fields of communication/media studies, social psychology, political science and sociology – have been tested in decades of published studies. This white paper provides a breakdown of social science and market research methods to clearly explain the benefits and limitations of using each one to understand issue-focused documentaries in particular. We examine a group of branded media-impact tools now available, dissecting their underlying research approaches and the ways in which they work optimally to help tell a story about the social impact of storytelling. This paper is based on a key premise: If strategists and producers are to build on current conversations to continually evolve impact assessment work, it’s crucial to begin with a shared language and understanding about how impact evaluation can fit in the cycle of work, and how to ensure it is optimally useful. Additionally, this report provides a mapping of research methods in service of a particular position: For any of a number of projects, an ideal impact assessment approach layers several research methods and clearly maps appropriate approaches to the definition of impact, depending upon whether individual behavior change, public interest (policy) change, or institutional (corporate) change is the goal.