Computational Impact Assessment of Issue Focused Media and Information Products

The overall goal with this project was to propose a solution for measuring impact of social justice documentaries in a theoretically grounded, systematic, empirical, scalable and rigorous fashion using computational approaches and to gain novel substantive knowledge providing actionable insights for film makers and funders.

The project has been conducted for the 2012~2016 period and all intended actions and goals have been achieved and made publicly available in the form of innovative software (ConText), software training material and education for students, scholars, and practitioners, and publications in premiere journals and conferences that document our improved and new methodological steps as well as any substantive knowledge gained by applying these novel methods. Especially, the proposed framework and technologies of impact measurement have been tested against and applied to real world media products. The project has made meaningful progress on developing and evaluating new, empirical, and scalable ways for measuring the impact of information products, especially issue-focused media, on individuals, groups, and society.