“Coming Together” around Two Towns of Jasper Partially funded by the Corporation for Public...
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Transcript of “Coming Together” around Two Towns of Jasper Partially funded by the Corporation for Public...
“Coming Together” around Two Towns of Jasper
Partially funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Understanding Outreach
• Do outreach events have an impact the communities that public television serves?
• Do these efforts have an effect on attitudes and actions beyond viewing public television programming?
Coming Together
• WPT and NCO sponsored a major outreach effort around Two Towns of Jasper
• WPT Hosted “Coming Together,” a special preview screening of the P.O.V. documentary
Coming Together
• Followed by a facilitated discussion about race and diversity issues in the community
• Over 300 participants (over-representation of members of minority groups)
Event Participants• Invitations
– 3100 mailed
• Advertisements– Both dailies and alternative weeklies
• Recruited through Partners– Coordinator visits, listserv e-mails,
event posters
Local Partnerships• Core of diversity and justice organizations
• Asian Freedom Project• Boys & Girls Club of Dane County• Centro Hispano• Equal Opportunities Commission• NAACP of Madison• First Unitarian Society Social Justice
Council• University of Wisconsin-Extension • YWCA-Racial Justice Initiative
Tracing Effects of Outreach
• Isolating effects of outreach is difficult
• Conduct a quasi-experimental study
Problem Response
Tracing Effects of Outreach
• Those who self-select involvement are different from those who do not
• Take similar subsets of people and invite different types of involvement
Problem Response
Tracing Effects of Outreach
• Observed differences may be due to pre-existing differences, not outreach
• Statistically control for remaining differences to isolate outreach effects
Problem Response
A Model for Evaluation
• Conducted a survey of randomly selected WPT members
– with a giving pattern of less than $500
• Mailed survey to all selected WPT members as well as participants from local partner organizations
A Model for Evaluation
• Event Participants (Saw program followed by discussion)
• Home Viewers (Saw program at home, possibly other content)
• Outreach Users (Online or Allied content, but not the program)
• Unexposed to Two Towns (No exposure to any content)
Survey Respondents
• Nearly 30% of the sample completed the survey, resulting in 925 responses
– Over-representation of minorities compared to population of 5% inMadison area
Survey Respondents
• Allows us to profile event participants, home viewers, content consumers, and the unexposed to gauge group differences– Does outreach reach the
underserved?
Profile of Event Participants(Saw program followed by discussion)
Profile of Racial Insensitivity
Unexposed to Two Towns….. 9.4%
Outreach Media Users…………. 3.1%
Home Viewers………………………. 10.5%
Event Participation………………. 30.4%
Profile of Past Discussion
Unexposed to Two Towns….. -4.3%
Outreach Media Users…………. 3.0%
Home Viewers………………………. 3.4%
Event Participation………………. 8.3%
Profile of Past Community Participation
Unexposed to Two Towns….. -6.8%
Outreach Media Users…………. 2.8%
Home Viewers………………………. -1.8%
Event Participation………………. 32.8%
Profile of Past WPT Involvement
Unexposed to Two Towns….. -5.7%
Outreach Media Users…………. 1.5%
Home Viewers………………………. -5.0%
Event Participation………………. 35.3%
Participant Profile
• Event participants differed from home viewers, outreach consumers, and the unexposed
– More likely to be women, younger, less affluent, nonwhite, and nonmembers than others surveyed
– Significantly more liberal, racially sensitive, talkative about politics, and active in community
Participant Profile
• Outreach appears to serve the underserved
• May further activate the previously engaged
Untangling Effects
• As expected, recruitment strategies and self-selection produced substantial differences
• Differences observed between conditions have to account for self-selection into that experience– Statistical analysis controls for pre-existing
traits when examining differences between conditions
Media Reflection
Community Racism Evaluation
Self-Efficacy
Estimating Change• Must control for past behaviors to
estimate whether outreach efforts produce effects on community and public television engagement
– When parallel past behaviors are controlled, observed differences likely due to the intervention
• Produce an estimate of behavioral change
– Much more conservative test of effects
Future Discussion
Future Community Participation
Future WPT Involvement
Community Engagement
• Event participation has powerful effects on issue discussion, community participation, and station involvement– Well above the sample mean for issue
discussion (25% above), civic action (48% above), and station involvement (81% above)
– Controls for past behavior and other factors
Community Engagement
• Outreach events make member stations
the community convener; spark political talk, civic action, and further station involvement
Process of Outreach Effects
Program and Allied
Content
Outreach Event
CommunityPerceptions
News Judgments
EfficacyCommunityEngagement
Effects of Outreach
• Results suggest multiple effects
– Foster Civic Attitudes: Personal Efficacy
– Shape Social Perceptions - News Content, Community Racism
– Encourage Community Engagement - Discussion and Action
Effects of Outreach
• Effects on community perceptions and civic engagement are the most compelling– Outreach puts a local perspective on larger
problems and provides opportunities to get involved in community life, either through the station or independently.